Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

I am unfamiliar with amendment No. a1, of which I did not receive a copy. I thought we were addressing amendment No. 1. It is rather unusual to use an amendment No. a1 in the grouping.

I will take up the principal point of contention between the Minister and me. The Minister wishes to subsidise the dinosaurs. The Green Party is suggesting that we do not subsidise dinosaurs and instead subsidise or, at least, create a level playing field for the new forms of life emerging that pose far less danger to human life than the dinosaurs. It is as simple as that.

It is patently unfair that when a new player comes into the market, such as Ecocem, which sells a low carbon cement, it pays its taxes to subsidise the dinosaurs. This is not right. After two terms in office, it seems that the Minister's party is more committed to the dinosaurs than it is to the sunrise industries. There is a huge number of new jobs that will be created in a low carbon future. At our conference a few weeks ago, a speaker from Germany spoke about 180,000 new jobs that were created in renewable energy in Germany. It is as simple as that. What the Minister is doing is stalling on the transition period. It shows up in his figures. He gave us a graph a few weeks ago showing 55 million next year and so on for the next six years. He is failing to progress the issue. That is the bone I have to pick in regard to the dinosaurs.

We need to move on from giving no carrot to the new entrants and propping up the old polluting industries. Taxpayers will benefit if we move forward and at least create a level playing field for new entrants. These new companies will benefit and those old industries will move on. New jobs will be provided in the same way as happened when Irish Steel and Irish Fertiliser Industries Limited closed. New jobs are emerging in Cork, Arklow and elsewhere. We cannot stand still and, worse still, we cannot subsidise the past. We have to embrace a low carbon future.

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