Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In his reply, the Minister said the upturn in the economy and the fact that we were going to miss the targets completely could not have been foreseen. It was foreseen. Several of us raised the fact that this was going to happen when there was an economic recovery. We raised it while the legislation was going through the House and the committee. We pointed out that the absence of binding sectoral targets would lead us to where we are now, namely, to a carbon cliff. It is clear from the transcripts that I and others were saying this. Electricity consumption is to experience a 40% reduction by 2020 and we are only at 25%. The contribution from transport is supposed to be 10% and we are at 3.3% according to the EPA report. The contribution of renewables to heat should be 12% but at best we will hit 6.5%. We are not even halfway there in most cases. Outside the emissions trading system, ETS sector, we are going to be somewhere between 4% and 6% overall, and that is if we are being hopeful. The figure should be 20% below 2005 levels. This is a catastrophe. What is the financial cost to the State going to be, never mind the cost in embarrassment?

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