Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not entirely clear what the Deputy's question is. I will await the report from the all-party committee, which is being ably chaired by my colleague, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton. On the Government's commitment to climate action, it is important to put the kind of initiatives that the Government has committed to on the record of the House. We do not need an all-party agreement to make the commitments that we have made. Under Project Ireland 2040, the largest single bloc of investment is in climate action to the tune of more than €20 billion in investment in infrastructure that will allow us to tackle climate change. We have confirmed that Ireland will become one of the first countries in the world to ban the use of smoky coals, for example. Moneypoint will be taken off coal in 2025 and we will be one of the first countries in Europe to come off coal as a means of generating power. We will take peat out of electricity system by 2030, if not before. From next year, any new buses that are added to our bus fleet will be either low emission or zero-emission vehicles. The first few will arrive this year and we will buy no new ones from the middle of next year other than low emission or zero-emission vehicles. We have agreed to begin electrifying more of our railways, including the Maynooth and Kildare lines. When BusConnects is looked at, it is not just to do with busses; one quarter of the programme relates to cycling because along those high quality spines and bus lanes, there will be space for bikes as well. The Deputy is right to acknowledge the enormous investment that this Government has put into greenways, not just in my constituency but also around the country in places such as Waterford, and there will be many more similar investments. We also have plans to retrofit public buildings and homes to make them more energy efficient. We have the new renewable electricity support scheme to deliver an additional 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy and we have renewable heat as well. We have a pretty good plan but we need to implement it. We also need the co-operation of the Opposition in doing so and perhaps even some encouragement and acknowledgement as well.

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