Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question, which touches on two important issues; the need to maintain adequate provision of care in the community and the need to increase significantly the uptake of environmentally friendly modes of transport that will help decrease our greenhouse gas emissions. As the Deputy will appreciate, consideration of targeted supports for specific categories of workers is a matter for the Department with the relevant policy responsibility. In the first instance I can confirm that no scheme of this kind is being developed within my Department, nor are there plans to do so.

Responsibility for the kind of issue to which the Deputy has referred would sit within the parent Department. However, his question does illustrate the challenges and opportunities that exist in an era when policymaking increasingly needs to satisfy the twin objectives of improving public services and helping to achieve our climate goals. This will demand greater collaboration and co-operation between relevant Departments and Government agencies to generate the evidence to underpin these types of cross-cutting policies, including robust estimation of the incremental costs and incremental impact of any new measures, both in terms of public service delivery and climate outcomes, such as the transport emission reductions referred to in the Deputy’s question.

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