John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

That is not a problem.

As we proceed, there will be a need to keep the new arrangements under review to ensure the environmental objective is delivered while funding for local authorities is sustained.

These new measures apply to new cars and newly imported cars only with effect from 1 July 2008. Cars registered before that date will continue to be taxed in future years under the existing system relating to cubic capacity engine sizes.

The Environmental Protection Agency is charged with protecting our environment and does so in different ways. It licenses environmentally high-risk activities through the integrated pollution prevention and control system and through waste licensing. It enforces the licences that it grants, both to private and public sector undertakings, to ensure compliance with the conditions it attaches thereto. It also operates an emissions trading unit that is vital to our progress in meeting our Kyoto Protocol obligations. More generally, the agency monitors the state of our environment, highlighting the environmental pressures and challenges that we face.

The increase of over 40% in the Exchequer provision for the agency will enable it to carry forward this work with added impetus and vigour. It is further clear evidence of the impact of the Green Party in Government, and of the Government's commitment to respect and protect our environmental heritage in the broadest sense.

The revised expenditure provisions announced by the Tánaiste regarding my Department's Estimates make provision for increased levels of spending in many important areas. We will maintain strong momentum in the major national development plan housing and water services programmes. I am placing stronger emphasis on heritage areas in my Department and I will strengthen our capacity to further compliance and enforcement of our legal obligations in the area of environmental protection.

My Department's National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, is responsible for nature protection. NPWS has a nationwide presence and is key to front-line enforcement of our protected habitats and species. NPWS also provides expert advice to farmers and other landowners as well as to local planning authorities in circumstances where development impinges on sensitive sites and species.

The Government is committing resources to enhancing our national parks and reserves. In 2008 I will be seeking to consolidate and strengthen the Department's NPWS presence in the countryside. I also intend to review the natural heritage regulations in the new year to ensure that Ireland plays a leading role in nature conservation.

Ireland has a rich archaeological and architectural heritage. It is our duty to continue to protect it and hand it on to future generations to enjoy. The programme for Government sets out a number of important objectives on the protection of our built heritage. Significant progress has already been made in the achievement of those objectives and the most recent budget continues that work.

The programme for Government commits to strengthening the role and operation of the Heritage Council, particularly regarding built heritage. We are very clearly giving effect to that commitment today by providing €13.4 million to the Heritage Council, an increase of 14% over the figure for 2007. This will allow the council to further increase awareness and the growing appreciation of heritage nationally, carry out heritage research surveys and analysis, and promote best practice in conservation and sustainable heritage management.

The significant investment in infrastructure and other development in recent years has, of necessity, been complemented by a strong expansion in the archaeological investigations essential to ensure we achieve the right balance between development and the protection of the non-renewable resource that is our archaeological heritage. I am very pleased, therefore, to announce I will be providing funding in 2008 for a dedicated archaeological research fund, which fund will come into operation next year. While details remain to be worked out, this new measure is likely to be administered by the Heritage Council, which already manages a number of built and natural heritage grants programmes successfully on behalf of the Department. My Department will continue to have broad oversight of the new measure and its administration.

I have no doubt there is widespread support for maximising archaeological knowledge as we progress our development projects, and for the dissemination of the information gained to the widest extent possible. The new archaeological research fund provides a mechanism to make this goal a reality.

Housing matters will be dealt with more fully by my colleague, the Minister of State with special responsibility for housing, urban renewal and developing areas, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. The principle of sustainability is also a key concern of housing policy. While acknowledging the important economic aspects of the housing sector, housing policy is about providing homes for people. The aim must be to provide homes in a good quality environment with all that this means from a community and infrastructure perspective. Sustainable housing involves the construction of homes that are structurally sound, energy efficient, environmentally friendly and adaptable over time to changing household needs.

My Department places a particular focus on interventions necessary for those who cannot meet their accommodation needs solely from their own resources. I welcome the record financial provision of more than €1.7 billion for social and affordable housing in 2008. The increased level of funding is in line with the housing commitments contained in Towards 2016 and demonstrates the Government's determination to fully honour these obligations.

The 2008 provision will allow for 6,600 local authority homes to be started or acquired, 2,000 starts by the voluntary and co-operative housing sector and continuing implementation of the rental accommodation scheme, with a total programme output of starts or acquisitions of 9,000 homes. Funding will also be maintained for the provision of Traveller and homeless accommodation and work will continue on the redevelopment of Ballymun.

In addition, I am particularly pleased to have been successful in securing funding of €10 million to kick-start the major regeneration programme in Limerick. As well as dealing with a serious legacy from past mistakes, the regeneration programme in Limerick is an exciting opportunity to showcase the quality and sustainability agenda, which is now at the heart of our approach to housing.

Improving the quality of social housing generally is a key focus for us now. New projects will be sustainable community proofed as part of the project appraisal stage. Greater innovation will be encouraged, building on those initiatives taken already by many local authorities in building sustainable housing.

I am determined to ensure that the substantial financial provisions secured for 2008 will be used wisely. By building on the momentum achieved to date, we will be well placed to meet, in scale and substance, the ambitious targets set for the initial 2007 to 2009 phase of Towards 2016 and the national development plan.

It is very clear that the environmental imperatives of sustainability and balanced regional development now take centre stage in the national development plan. Consistency with the national spatial strategy and the regional planning guidelines will be a requirement for all infrastructure investments. The systematic threading of the national spatial strategy into the national development plan in this way will yield important demographic, social and environmental dividends in the future. Equally, the factoring in of environmental impacts in a systematic manner is a real change in the way public expenditure programmes are implemented, which I very much welcome. It reflects a widespread consensus that now obtains regarding policies to promote economic growth and the protection of the environment.

I am happy to have had the opportunity of making a comprehensive statement to the House setting out budgetary implications in respect of matters for which I am responsible as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I am particularly pleased to be in a position to announce the carbon budget. My colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, will address housing matters and, together with the other Ministers of State in the Department, we look forward to a very successful implementation of Government policies and strategies in 2008.

I reiterate that my party is in Government to effect significant changes for the good of the environment and for the continued prosperity of the country. We are making good progress and this budget is a significant step for us in the right direction. For the first time, we have put forward a carbon budget. I will be on my way to Bali on Saturday and it is important we set the tone here for the successful conclusion of negotiations there. Hopefully, we will have a road map to a better future.

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