Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

It is ironic the Minister of State would say that, particularly in the context of the European Commission finding that Ireland is going to fail to meet its climate targets. The EU report published in February made the point that Ireland is not on track to reach its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. We are talking about 3% up to 2020 but there is no plan for how we are going to achieve that or commit to it, and targets are a critical part of this process. I believe we will rue the day. We are talking about targets to be achieved in five years but we have no plan in place to achieve this. It is a classic example of kicking the can down the road without any meat on it. It will probably take us two or three years to have a detailed plan but it will not be developed in the context of definitive targets, which is regrettable.

See this speech in context