Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has the co-ordinating function, and part of the reason we may well have understated our problem is the downturn in the economy and the reduction in traffic movements. We must heed what the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has indicated: if the modelling scenarios are realised, the scale of investment, compliance costs and climate finance required to be funded by the Exchequer for the period from 2021 to 2030 could result in the displacement of other Government programmes. Essentially, it has argued that we will have to make up from the Exchequer what we do not provide for in mitigating measures.

The timeline for the DART underground sees a decision being forced in September of next year, after which the railway order will cease to be legal. That would be a game-changer. One of the difficulties is that the sectoral plans in the climate legislation that has been published and started its passage through the Dáil will not come into effect for two years after the legislation is put in place. We are making targets even more unrealistic by pushing this out into the future. This is a real issue.

See this speech in context