Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I invite the Minister to consider giving the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, a more prominent role in respect of promoting this sort of thinking within the climate plan. For example, the choice between a sports utility vehicle, SUV, which has 35 tonnes of embodied carbon, and a standard car, which has only 10 tonnes, can have a huge impact in the global context. Does the Minister agree that Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which has responsibility for much of our planning regulations, is dragging its feet on introducing new approaches that would see embodied carbon being more central to the way we design our buildings? There is huge scope here for making an impact and creating a better public understanding of the issues.

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