Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her comments on the management of the Brexit process by the Government. I agree with what she said about climate change. Many people are ahead of the Government and this House on climate change, in particular young people. It does not surprise me that many of them will want to ensure their voices are heard on the need for the prioritisation of a more urgent response to the challenge of climate. We hear that, from a Government perspective, and that is the reason the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, is working on an all-of-Government plan to set out the actions that must be taken by every Department and body. The plan should be ready before Easter. For the first time, we will have a climate change plan with real targets that apply to every sector. The Minister is working with colleagues across Government to develop new initiatives in electricity generation, transport, heating and a range of other sectors. That will build on initiatives that have already been introduced.

As the Deputy is aware, €116 billion of expenditure has been committed over the next ten years. Of the money we have committed to spend on capital infrastructure, one in every five euro relates to climate mitigation. We have also launched a €500 million climate action fund for the best projects that generate significant CO2 reductions. The all-party Oireachtas committee on climate change will report next week. The Government will study the recommendations closely and try to factor them into Government planning and try to get agreement on a cross-party level on many of those recommendations, which will be challenging and will pose some difficult choices for this House. We will then be tested on whether the people are ahead of us on some of the difficult choices around the value of carbon and related issues in the future.

I know Galway well, having been Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, and traffic is a significant issue for the city. We are planning to grow the population of the city by another 50% in the next two decades. It is clear that we need to invest heavily in public transport to be able to replace the need for cars with sustainable public transport infrastructure. That is the reason we have committed a significant amount of money to the BusConnects programme for Galway, which will rationalise five high-performing cross-city routes and prioritise bus lanes as well as providing for segregated cycle lanes, which are badly needed in Galway. I will follow up on Deputy Connolly's final question when I get a chance to respond for a second time.

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