Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)

There is so much spin in the Taoiseach's reply that it is difficult to know where to start. We have less offshore wind production than we did 20 years ago. That is the reality. I recognise that the climate Act was good but it is about delivery. The target was 51%. The Government made a plan to reach 23% and even that did not happen. The reality is that the Taoiseach's Government's record is one of abject failure. When the Social Democrats try to point that out, his approach is to misrepresent our position. That is especially true when it comes to the nitrates derogation, for example.

The fact is - we all know it - that applying huge amounts of nitrogen to the land is damaging our water quality. That is not my opinion, that is what the Environmental Protection Agency has said time again. That is why it is going to be so difficult to retain the derogation. Pointing that out was sabotage according to one of the Taoiseach's party's MEPs. That is the way they bizarrely put it, when it is actually just a fact.

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