Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

How can the Tánaiste state the Government is committed? How can one say the Government is committed when, if one examines what was agreed yesterday, the neighbouring countries of Britain, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Sweden - the countries with which we should be comparing ourselves - are twice as committed? As I stated, Ireland effectively is going for a 20% target for 2030 whereas they effectively are going for 40%. The Tánaiste is correct; the Government did engage with the Commission in Brussels and was highly successful. It basically used all of Ireland's political capital to state Ireland should be counted out. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, who is sitting beside the Tánaiste, should have real concerns about this because the rest of the world not just in Europe, but in America and in Asia, is starting to take this issue seriously because they can see the world burning and want to play their part. Moreover, they think economic opportunities will come from it. The real risk is that in holding Ireland back and in stating it should be counted out, as it will not play its part, we will miss the economic opportunity that comes for those who lead.

I note the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is speaking. In the debate last night on the Energy Bill, he recognised that not only are we falling behind on our emissions targets, but we are also falling behind in our renewables targets. As the Minister stated last night, every percentage point that we are below our targets in that area will cost us €150 million per year and as the Minister for Finance recognised in the spring economic statement, our failure to meet even those low targets we now are setting for 2020 will cost us further hundreds of millions of euro. To conclude, if we are serious, we will need a quadrupling of the money the Minister, Deputy Naughten, gets. We will need a tripling of the public transport budget and will need to make some tough and strong political decisions, rather than stating we are committed, only to then do the exact opposite in the international arena.

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