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

I take the Taoiseach's response as a "Yes", which puts the ball back on the Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Labour Party side of the court. That is a positive and welcome development. Regardless of whether the carbon tax is €80 or €90 per tonne by 2030, my suggestion is the appropriate way to reach our objective.

Yesterday, during Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach stated he was confident we would achieve our 2030 targets. He also said the Government had experience as it had delivered the Action Plan for Jobs. That is like saying we climbed the Sugar Loaf so we will climb Mount Everest tomorrow. That is the scale of the change and challenge involved. The leap we have to make is huge. As Professor John Fitzgerald has said, we are rapidly moving in the wrong direction. As the Taoiseach now admits, the development plan will not work and will bring us one third of the way at most. The development plan says that by 2021 we will be deep retrofitting 45,000 houses a year. That is the best, most beneficial and economic way to tackle this issue but we do not have the workers or money in place. We have to set all of this up. I come back to my key point. The time is now. To do this new plan by Christmas, when we have to present it to the European Commission, we need agreement on a whole range of complex and difficult issues. I am glad the Taoiseach seems to be agreeing with what we are suggesting on the carbon tax. I put it to the other parties that if, in committee, they agree on that one element and any other elements on which we can get agreement-----

See this speech in context