Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I will not be talked down tonight because this is an important issue. Deputies will have to be a little patient with me. Since 2000 we have implemented measures that are taking almost 9 million tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere each year, which is a significant change, and we have now set out exactly what we will do to reduce emissions by a further 5 million tonnes. Domestic measures will reduce emissions by almost 14 million tonnes, that is, 80% of the total reduction set out in the new strategy. The details are set out in the National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012. I commend this document because it was deliberately kept short, without frills and kept to specifics, for the first time because that is the way I like a report to be produced.

I am glad that Deputy Gilmore has joined us because he has castigated the Government for its failure to introduce a carbon tax.

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