Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

Ireland's great potential to create this renewable energy resource has been known for over a decade and important opportunities to wean the economy away from its total dependence on imported oil and gas supplies have been lost. Unfortunately, the biofuels and renewables strategy the Minister finally launched yesterday still fails to include a comprehensive and innovative bionenergy plan. Many of the targets such as the biofuels target of 5.75% for road transport by 2010 are the minimum targets long recommended by the European Union. The strategy also delays introducing a biofuels obligations scheme until 2009. The contribution of biofuels to the transport industry is derisory. It is amazing that the Minister has not introduced measures to redirect the public service transport fleet towards the use of bioenergy.

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