Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

That is the problem with this type of scheme and has been identified by a number of people including Friends of the Earth. The Minister says we will keep doing what we are doing, putting out our emissions, and let the least developed countries take the brunt of reducing emissions. They can have renewable energy but they cannot have the technology we have. It is all to make the Green Party look good because it brought in carbon offsets, although it did not reduce emissions but got the Third World to do it for us instead. That is the gist of what the Minister said. I am very sceptical about this type of initiative. The Minister would do better to put more buses on the road. If he spent that €400,000 on extra buses for Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus or whoever, I would not be sceptical. This is all about appearances, like all the other Green Party initiatives. We will have our consciences eased about flying or driving in our big cars and let the Third World take the brunt of it. We will not let them have the development we have. They will take the brunt of this while we feel good about ourselves.

See this speech in context