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

It must be led by the Government, but businesses, too, have to act to take into account the rising cost of carbon and to change how they operate. Individuals can also make a contribution, which they want to do. People I meet want to make a contribution to reducing our emissions, and more and more people are doing that.

On rail electrification, we already have plans to electrify the railways to Drogheda, Maynooth and Kildare, and to build the MetroLink, which is an overground and underground electrified service. After that, we can certainly look at electrifying other elements of our rail network, but only so much can be done at any one time and it costs money to do such things. If we were to make public transport free, it is hard to see how we would find the money to invest also in the infrastructure.

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