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

May we wish our greatest public servant, TK Whitaker, a happy birthday and honour him? He is a remarkable man. I must ask a follow on question. Where is today's version of Whitaker? Where is the person who will make the same type of leap we need to make? TK Whitaker was involved in Ireland's leap from being a closed country to an open one. What we need to do today is move from being a fossil fuelled country to a sustainable clean and better economic model.

We need to do that because we are, as our best scientist, Professor John Sweeney, has said, a "delinquent" State in terms of climate change and that is the only accurate word to use.

Our best regulator, Laura Burke, got it absolutely right last week when she said that when it came to climate change we were all talk and no action. The figures behind that argument are clear. In energy and transport our emissions are going up by 5% per year when they have to go down by that amount. I was at the sustainable nation business conference last month and all the people in this area gave one clear message, that we had everything in place to enable us to be good at this transition. We can create jobs and secure our economic future but all said that what was missing was political leadership. The money and the expertise is there and we have good companies with people ready to do it but nothing is happening.

The current capital plan is woefully inadequate to bring about any change or transition. The Minister responsible for energy spoke on the matter but there is nothing in the annual transition statement. The only plan we have is to burn biomass for power generation which, as anybody in the energy sector knows and Greenpeace has said, is like putting out a fire with gasoline. I have recently been critical of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, for apparently having no interest in his responsibility to switch to a cleaner transport system in the form of public transport, electric vehicles and cycling and walking. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae was right to say yesterday that there is no money for cycling infrastructure in Kerry, which it needs, and nor is there any in Dublin. This is madness because by tackling the climate issue we will get a better transport system. We are facing gridlock and one of the ways out of it is to take action. The Minister for Transport is doing nothing. In agriculture we are trading on an Origin Green banner which we will not be able to use because it is not the reality. We have everything to gain by going green as Teagasc has shown that doing so gives a more profitable agricultural system.

We have no Whitaker and no Lemass. What is stopping the Government from taking real serious action on climate change? Why is it allowing this county to become a delinquent State on this crucial issue of our time?

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