Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for raising these issues. In the first instance, I support NESC's work with regard to the shared island unit and the work it has done in terms of greater potential for cross-Border co-operation projects, particularly in respect of health, which has been one of the more effective cross-Border areas over a long time and, in particular, in respect of paediatric health and cardiovascular health in paediatrics. The one cardiac surgical centre on the island enjoyed political support across the island irrespective of political background.

That scope and potential also exists for mental health. The shared island unit stands ready to financially support any cross-Border project that is developed by respective mental health agencies, North or South. I would be very keen to progress that whether it is in a variety of areas under the mental health umbrella or otherwise. That is something we will continue to work practically towards realising.

In respect of Deputy Barry's points on climate change, I accept the conclusions of the IPCC report but we need to start matching the rhetoric with reality. Any time the Government proposes anything, it gets opposed. In his contribution, the Deputy said he wants data centres banned, retrofit spread more widely and carbon tax abolished. I simply do not know how he is going to do all that.

We will be including council tenants and council houses will be retrofitted. There is a separate programme for that and a programme under the retrofit scheme for low-income families in respect of energy efficiency. An unprecedented allocation of funding has been provided under the retrofit programme. In fact, we aim to do in ten years what we did in the last 20 years. We want to double the numbers we did since the year 2000 over the next ten years. We also will be providing substantial grants to people to insulate attics and walls and so forth and then to do a deeper retrofit.

The resources we are providing are extraordinary but they have to be raised for the scheme to be sustainable over the ten-year period. That is why we put the carbon tax into law, which gets attacked all the time. Whatever measure we bring in to deal with climate gets attacked or undermined, which leads me to believe that people want to keep delaying dealing with climate change. That is the biggest danger we face in this country and all over the world. People want to keep delaying the action that is necessary and that will involve a bit of pain and readjustment. People want to keep on delaying it; we can no longer do so. People may attack our targets and say they are not ambitious enough, but God knows they are quite ambitious, and they will be very challenging over the next five years.

Whatever chance we have, however, we need co-operation and everybody on board because they are extraordinarily challenging. All sectors will have to play their part in respect of climate change. The NESC has pointed all this out in its reports. Likewise, the most recent report is quite depressing in terms of where the world is heading in respect of climate change and biodiversity. We must make very strong efforts around biodiversity.

I was in Fota Wildlife Park at the weekend to meet the executives there in terms of their plans. The work they are doing in biodiversity is quite extraordinary-----

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