Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

There are many commendable proposals in the Fine Gael motion and I hope we can move away from an adversarial position in the House.

Is it a case of changing existing systems or setting up a new body? I find the discussion this evening to be similar to a discussion I had when I was lecturing in Dublin Institute of Technology. We were setting up a new course, a master's degree in planning. We were deciding whether we should teach a course in sustainability as a module but after much consideration we decided instead that sustainability would be embedded into every subject that was taught. Sustainability would be discussed with regard to water supply, project management and all the way down the line. In a similar way, the proposal for the New ERA agency makes me wonder whether or not it is better to re-invigorate the existing Departments to continue doing and do better a lot of what they do or to set up a completely new agency.

Deputy Varadkar has expressed concern at the setting up of new bodies in the past, although many of the 800 or 900 bodies he referred to are worthy new semi-state bodies which should stay in operation. In his quango list he included bodies such as the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology so we should be careful when we get into that area. A new agency is not required. We need to work with what we have. The Green Party is working well with what is there. We have record investment in water infrastructure and new tariffs for the ESB. Bord Gáis is spending billions of euro on clean energy projects and €100 million of State funding is being spent on retrofitting and insulating homes. Many of the Green Party policies are being implemented. I would like to see more being implemented and, I imagine, if we had a majority Green Government we would see many more good green jobs being created and more emphasis on these issues. We are changing the systems through VRT — which Fine Gael was complaining about yesterday — telecom links and Irish banking funding for green businesses. All these are happening.

The Fine Gael Front Bench must bring its whole party with it. While it was talking about pushing investment in water treatment and electric transport, in Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael councillor Mary Mitchell-O'Connor said investing in electric car power points is unjustifiable and that the Green Party proposals on this issue "illustrate the degree to which the Greens are removed from the reality of everyday life". We are trying to put in what Fine Gael is suggesting and its councillor is objecting to it. Get real.

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