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

There is nothing in the national planning framework or in any recent Government publications about the DART interconnector, light rail for Cork or Galway or any of the public transport projects the Green Party would want in our cities. I cannot read crystal balls or predict the future but I read Government documents and ask parliamentary questions and I see nothing happening. I have listened to the climate advisory committee, which has indicated there is a problem. Does the Minister admit that we have a problem with rising emissions? In a recent priority question, I asked about the price of carbon and the Minister said that in the capital plan assessment, the price for carbon is €7 per tonne. I asked every serious economist I could find, experts in the field, about this and they all replied that if we were serious, we would be doing what the World Bank and the European Investment Bank are doing and setting the price at €40 per tonne immediately. Will the Minister do that and run it as a rule through his capital plan? Does he admit that we have a problem, with emissions rising across every sector? I can see nothing in the Government's plans to tackle this. He said that we have done this, that and the other in the budget but it is not working. Will he admit that? What will he do to change?

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