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

If the Deputy would give me 30 seconds at least I will come to answer his question. In the past couple of weeks, a decision was taken to take peat off our electricity grid, many years earlier than originally intended. It is not an easy decision for the midlands and is a big test of the just transition. It was a difficult and right decision taken by Government and State agencies. A total of €500 million has been secured for the Celtic interconnector in order that we can connect our electricity network to that of continental Europe and really expand wind energy in Ireland.

There was a difficult decision but the right one, supported by the Deputy but not by others, to increase the carbon tax in the budget and to ring-fence those proceeds from it for further climate action. There was also a decision taken to restrict exploration for oil in our waters. As for investment in transport, we have a difference of opinion on that. The Government policy is that we should prioritise investment in public transport over roads in a roughly 2:1 ratio and that is precisely what we have in Project Ireland 2040. If we take out maintenance, and I think we all agree that we have to maintain our existing infrastructure, Project Ireland 2040 favours public transport investment 2:1 over roads investment. That means projects such as the Luas capacity expansion, benefiting the Deputy's constituency which is now under way, as well as BusConnects, which I am glad to hear the Deputy now supports.

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