Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have much more to say and will return to some of it when I wrap up. Unfortunately, as Members await the heads of the Bill from the Government, it is evident that in transport, for example, there has been slippage. Obviously, the economic situation is determining some of it and, for example, much of what little investment there may be is going to road rather than to rail. Similarly services in public transport are being lost and instead of moving people towards a more sustainable pattern of movement, the opposite is in fact happening. In the case of retrofitting, there has been a collapse in the applications of people who wish to insulate their homes because the supports are being cut by the Government but yet, the successor scheme is taking time to deliver. In respect of the European directive on energy efficiency, Ireland is nowhere near achieving the 20% target. Although forestry is very important as a carbon sink, we potentially may be losing control of it because it is up for sale. We are losing control of afforestation, which is really important. No state aid is forthcoming for offshore wind or wave energy, which I believe to be a choice that is deliberate and wrong. As for waste, we have already spent millions on costly incineration proposals that must have guaranteed input as otherwise, the citizens must pay the deficit. Moreover, the environmental benefits of car tax have been reversed and the money raised on carbon tax is not ring-fenced but goes into general taxation. When one starts to consider what is happening in practice, it does not give one a great deal of confidence about what will come about in the future. We will not be able to continue to buy compliance and cannot afford to so do. Moreover, it is not the option that should be taken and so doing would cause problems after 2020, when Ireland's obligations will become much more acute.

I will conclude by noting that one can visualise the impact on our children and grandchildren on foot of the re-engineering of our debts. While I completely accept they have been inherited by the current Administration as an issue to be dealt with, our children will be picking up the tab. We cannot morally oblige them to pick up the tab for our failing to deal in a very deliberate, determined and practical way with this major issue. Unless it is dealt with now, it will be an even greater challenge for them into the future. While this rightly is a legal set of obligations, most of all it is a set of moral obligations that we must assume as a people, unless we are to leave enormous problems for future generations.

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