Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The emergency works project relating to the Drogheda-Staleen water treatment plant is at construction phase at present. In addition, phase 1 of the water main rehabilitation works in County Louth is expected to be completed later this month. These are projects that were left lying idle for a very long period. The programme set out by Irish Water in respect of both water and sewage projects is extremely strong. As time progresses, people will see the value of the company being able to borrow in order to invest properly and fix the various problems that exist. On the west coast, there was a major difficulty regarding some major industries not having access to sufficient supplies of water. The contract in respect of that matter - worth €11 million to €15 million - was signed last year and when the work relating to it is completed, major industries will have access to high volumes of pristine water. The programme set out by Irish Water in respect of both water supplies and sewage schemes for the period ahead is real and will be very beneficial to the country.

What is being done at present in the context of the provision of broadband and communications services, water and sewage services and roads will go a long way towards ensuring that people in rural areas and at provincial level will have access to employment opportunities in the future. That work, allied to the rural development programme for the period from now until 2020, which was approved by the European Commission and which is worth €4 billion, and the programmes set out by IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and local employment offices, will allow communities that experienced very difficult times in recent years to fight back.

On climate change, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht did first-class work in facilitating the public on the outline heads of the climate action and low-carbon development Bill and submitted its report in November 2013. While it did not make any specific recommendations, the committee set out possible courses of action which might be considered. The then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government gave the joint committee's report full and careful consideration in the development of the general scheme of Bill to which I refer, which was approved by the Government in April of last year. A number of the suggestions made by the committee were contemplated in that general scheme, including reducing the interval between national low-carbon roadmaps from seven years to five and allowing the expert advisory body to publish its annual and periodic review reports directly rather than being obliged to obtain prior consent from the Government.

The current Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government will shortly bring proposals to the Government in respect of the establishment of a national expert advisory council on climate change. Those proposals will also contain suggestions regarding the membership of the latter. I understand that the membership will include an independent chairperson and ex-officiorepresentatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Teagasc, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, along with a number of other independent appointees with relevant experience. I expect the Minister to bring forward his proposals in this regard fairly soon.

The national low-carbon roadmap to 2050, which will incorporate sectoral mitigation proponents, is currently being worked upon. In that context, Departments with responsibility for the four key sectors are preparing those proponents for incorporation into the roadmap. The key sectors to which I refer are those relating to electricity generation, the built environment, transport and agriculture. It is intended that a draft national low-carbon roadmap contemplating those four sectoral elements will be made available for public consultation. In that context, it will be important to consider the outcome of the negotiations of the EU's 2030 policy framework for climate and energy and also relevant advices available to the Government and the key sectors in question.

Deputy Adams will be aware that detailed discussions took place with regard to Ireland's inability to meet its 2020 targets. As I indicated previously, those targets were based on insufficient scientific information in the first instance. If the targets for 2030 were to be set on the basis of those relating to 2020, then this country would be facing an enormous problem and would be fined exceptionally heavily for both failing to meet the latter and having no chance at all of meeting the former. This is why the European Council accepts that Ireland is unique in terms of its agricultural output.

As we have carbon footprinted most of the dairy farms in the country, we are pioneering and leading in a world sense in this sphere. When quotas go in the next few weeks, this country will become the most productive unit on the planet in terms of produce. That means a significant increase in the national cow herd. It is not for me to restrain the good dairy cows of Ireland from natural functions but if one increases productivity, one cannot reduce emissions from that perspective. That is why the European Council accepted the arguments put forward by Ireland in terms of our afforestation programme and sequestration reducing the extent of emissions. That is a very important element of the negotiating strategy.

All the issues Deputy Adams raised have to be taken into account. They include energy efficiency in the public sector, residential energy efficiency programmes, the energy efficiency funds and obligations schemes. I have been involved in some of these discussions at European level. They are utterly technical and exceptionally complicated. At the end of the day, we have to work backwards and ask whether this country can meet targets that are reasonable, achievable and will not result in the next generation being swamped by exceptionally heavy fines. In fairness to the Departments, their technical officials are working exceptionally hard to prepare a roadmap that is clear, achievable and will meet targets that are appropriate for Ireland. I do not in any way want to diminish the importance of these issues. These efforts will allow us to make real progress while continuing to produce high quality food with low carbon emissions. These goals can be contradictory in some senses but we want to be able to assure everybody we can meet targets that allow us to play our part in addressing many challenges, one of which is that the population of the world will reach 10 billion by 2050. We have significant potential to provide many thousands of jobs in this country by producing high quality food in a grass based agri-sector but we need an understanding from a European perspective of what is involved in doing that.

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