Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cabinet committees generally meet if an issue will arise before the Government. We have already dealt with the climate change Bill and rather than having specific targets which will lead to one being in court on a regular basis if they are not achieved and given that the target date is 2050, it is better to set principles and objectives at which a Government can aim. The Minister published the outline heads of the climate action and low carbon development Bill. He is co-ordinating the development of national and sectoral low carbon road maps and much work is ongoing at interdepartmental level with the United Nations in respect of the Warsaw conference due to take place later this month.

We are all cognisant of the scientific response on new commercial waterways being opened in the Arctic because of melting, changes to the jetstream, the fluctuations in temperature in the Atlantic, the beginning of a European and US response to a study of the ocean, the movement of waters, the management of stocks, the fluctuations on the seabed and mortality rates among fish. All of these issues are important.

I agree with Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett for once. The pay-as-you-save scheme is not as simple as it looks. The Government made available €35 million to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for the scheme, but it is not as simple to implement it in reality as was originally intended. Water saving is an issue. On the Continent people have had to install collection tanks for rainwater for many years as part of the normal planning process. One will find it happening here too to a far greater extent as time passes. Water meters are being installed, a process which will employ 5,000 people and have consequences.

When we speak about the €7 billion bill for the importation of fossil fuels, people always tell me that they want jobs by the thousand throughout the country, but we have a marked reluctance to deal with the importation of gas and the provision of pylons and turbines. People have every right, of course, and there must be sensitivity for the environment, but there must also be practicality in the sense that one cannot provide power without cables and we will not have the jobs and prosperity we need unless we invest in infrastructure and facilities to deal with this investment. It is a case of having a good compromise worked out in everybody's interests. I will raise this issue at the next meeting of the Cabinet committee on climate change which is due to meet on 25 November.

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