Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Yes, one must spend €1,500 at the start, then find money for books, to dress oneself, to pay bus fares and to feed oneself. Given the cuts, it is hypocritical to state that we are trying to give everyone a chance to attend a third level institution. The cuts are due to the fact that the Government failed to see the big picture.

As the Minister will admit, 80%-85% of the education budget is spent on salaries and wages. If one does not tackle this problem and the issue of numbers, one must consider cuts in the remaining 15%-20%. In this light, one is bound to make silly, stupid cuts that affect people who pay taxes.

I do not want more hearts bleeding for children who should get access to third level education. I want practical help to be given to them. They can appear at a social welfare office to get assistance before walking the streets. Would we not be better off spending the money helping every child to become skilled, to attend college and to have a positive and creative way to fulfil his or her life? These are the practical day-to-day problems that people must face, not theories or seminars on how to spread wealth. Given the fact that people need education and skills for today's society, how can anyone in the Government increase registration fees, not increase the maintenance grant and abolish grants for school books? It is a disgrace. Let us cut out the hypocrisy and address reality.

I will address climate change and carbon emissions. I have the pleasure of chairing the all-party Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security. I am proud of my position and of the committee's members, who work hard. We have noticed the various Government statements on targets and the actions to be taken. Ireland is running out of time and the failure to meet targets will cost the taxpayers money.

We discuss transport often, but what are we doing? What movements has Iarnród Éireann made to shift freight from our roads onto trains? What advances are we making in terms of additional sources of public transport so that people can leave their cars behind? There are quality bus corridors, QBCs, with no buses on them. To worsen the insult, they are 24 hours per day, seven days per week QBCs, but I have yet to see a bus running at 4 a.m. It is shambolic symbolism.

What are we doing about our targets? We are sitting down and agreeing further cuts with our European partners despite not having achieved our current targets. For example, if someone wants to go on a cycling holiday to County Kerry, how can he or she bring a bicycle? I have written to Iarnród Éireann to ask whether it has small carriages at the back of trains in which to store goods. That way, one would have somewhere to put a bicycle, but what can one do with a bicycle now? We are being given grants for bicycles, but how can the latter be carried to County Kerry? Should one put it on top of a car and drive? It is a contradiction.

In most other countries, one can put a bicycle on a train. If one wanted to cycle into work from where I live and it is raining in the evening, surely one should be able to get the DART home and put one's bicycle in a small carriage at the back. It is simple. In Copenhagen, for example, taxis have been encouraged to carry rear fittings so that, if it is a wet evening, one can put a bicycle on the taxi and hop inside. We have not even reached that point, yet we are discussing entering into commitments on further cuts.

Transport is one of our greatest emissions problems, but agriculture is an equal problem. Will we halve our cattle stock? How can we achieve the targets? Have we negotiated within the EU to transfer our savings in other sectors to compensate for our inability to reduce agricultural emissions? If we are to be the food basket of Europe, surely it is in the EU's interests that we produce food for European citizens. Will we cut back, making food more expensive due to its scarcity? No one has attempted to negotiate on behalf of Ireland in this regard. We are blindly walking into and accepting targets without realising what we are entering into. It is not a question of simply brushing off the failure to achieve the targets as just another failure. If we do not achieve them, we will pay a considerable amount of money to purchase credits to compensate for our inability to effect reductions.

Before leaving the topic of transport, I want to mention something. In our final days in government some years ago, we considered opening Baldonnel Airport to commercial flights. As the then Minister for Defence, I held discussions with the Defence Forces. The Air Corps reverted to me to state that it would be only too pleased to see the airport being used for commercial flights provided facilities were ring-fenced for Air Corps activities. It would have suited everyone. The runway would have been used for both purposes and the Air Corps would have been relieved of maintenance duties. The airport at Collinstown is packed on a daily basis. I see no reason that internal flights should not leave from Baldonnel.

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