John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

REEEP is a "gold standard" company. I met its representatives in Bali. It is sometimes difficult to understand what Deputy Tuffy says. What is the Labour Party's position on this? Her colleague, Deputy Burton, has raised this issue time and again on the Order of Business, asking the Government when it would introduce this scheme. I got the clear impression the Labour Party was waiting for us to introduce this. Now it appears the Labour Party is opposed to this. This is "gold standard" offsetting. Deputy Tuffy should listen to people such as Mr. Al Gore, who clearly said it does not matter where one reduces carbon as long as it is reduced. That is the principle behind the European scheme. One puts a cap on emissions and decides to reduce them. Would the Deputy prefer that we do nothing? This is the practice of most progressive Governments, and now that the Green Party is in government, we have a very progressive Government.

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