Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

I was reading through the Government's latest national climate change strategy and I concede that it makes interesting reading. The brazen statement that Ireland is meeting its commitments jumps out from page 15 and surely the Taoiseach knows this statement is false. Regarding the Kyoto Protocol, Ireland is 25.4% over 1990 levels and rising so the contents of this report are downright lies. I ask the Taoiseach to correct these fallacies because it is wrong for the Government to give out facts that are not in keeping with the truth.

The Government's first strategy on climate change was not implemented so how can we trust it to implement the second strategy? The Government did not implement the carbon tax and it promised that the Moneypoint power station would switch from coal which did not happen. The Government promised a rebalancing of vehicle registration tax, which did not happen under the first strategy and has been kicked into the future. There are many other examples of this nature.

In spite of the dishonesty already evident in this plan, that there is no costing for compact fluorescent lamp, CFL, light bulb plans and no timeframes that one might expect, the Taoiseach importantly said there will be a reduction of 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, based on the EU agreement. I take the Taoiseach at his word on this and presume he knows the implications. In 2005, the latest figures available, we were emitting 70 million tonnes and a level 20% below 1990 levels would allow us emit a maximum of 44.8 tonnes. This requires a reduction of more than 25 million tonnes of CO2, or a third of the current level.

If the Taoiseach thinks the Northern peace process was difficult, changing to a post-oil economy is of a far greater magnitude. Carbon trading will not be affordable; the Taoiseach has provided €270 million for this purpose but, according to experts on renewable energy, the actual cost will be €1.5 billion by 2020. Will the Taoiseach create legislation that will require us to reduce carbon emissions each year by, say 3%, on the previous year? Will the Taoiseach indicate when this will be done or how will he arrive at the 20% cut he has said will happen?

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