Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that we have to look at all the opportunities the Deputy mentioned and at the bilateral situation but I get the feeling from talking to people in Congress and the Senate that it is not going to happen. I hope we could make some sort of an arrangement but it is not going to be easy. I spoke to the new speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, who was here earlier this summer or last summer with his family and is very clued into Ireland's position. I wish him the very best in his job as Speaker. Deputy Martin is right that, over the years, the cohort of Irish travelling to America built up a unique connection in many fields all over the States and now that the digital world is moving so rapidly that is even stronger than before. It seems as if the decision being made here resulted from different nationalities congregating in different places across the States. The potential impact of losing J1 visas is not to be underestimated. We do not know at this stage what the requirement for paperwork will be from the far side and what the requirements will be for a young man or woman applying for a J1 visa in order to comply with the conditions of employment which are set by these agencies in Boston, Chicago or wherever, the traditional haunts of the Irish looking for summer work. It would be a terrible shame if young people were denied the opportunity because they go on holidays and find themselves working for a day only to be declared undocumented and deported, giving them difficulties for years afterwards. David Donoghue did a wonderful job.

On Paris, we have signed on for collective reductions with our European colleagues for 2030 but no targets have been allocated yet for any individual country. We are not looking for any escape routes or exemptions or to be treated as a special case but our profile is different from every other country except New Zealand and Uruguay and we want full value for our agricultural land and forestry. We unanimously agreed this at the October meeting of the European Council, as the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, will be well aware. The Commission seems to have changed the assessment of what that actually means. This makes it more difficult for Ireland to make progress in that regard. We will achieve whatever target is set for us from 2020 to 2030 but no targets have been allocated yet so we are not resiling from anything. If we can produce X amount of food for a growing population and can produce X plus Y in the future while conforming to the current carbon footprint standards, we should not allow inferior food with higher carbon emissions to be produced in other places by knocking down rainforests. We want to and will play our part. Ireland, as part of Europe, will achieve the 40% reduction by 2030 and will achieve whatever target is eventually set for us between 2020 and 2030.

We approved the White Paper today. The energy Bill is going through and it works in four areas, namely, building, energy, transport and the agrisector. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, is working hard to see that charging points for electric cars are set up all over the country. Deputy Martin's party has a particular view on how that may be incentivised for some cars and such ideas are to be commended. The legislation and the White Paper on energy set out very ambitious targets for Ireland. The debate is moving way beyond the narrow confines of one particular sector and there will be public consultation and discussion. The Bill will allow for people to be very ambitious in the four sectors I mentioned, which are building, energy, transport and the agrisector.

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