Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 7: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking to offset the carbon emissions caused by official travel of staff of agencies under the remit of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15484/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Official travel in the agencies under the remit of my Department is appraised and monitored by each agency to ensure that travel is restricted to necessary journeys only. Wherever feasible, staff of the agencies use public transport when travelling on official business. Video conference and conference call facilities are regularly utilised to avoid the need for official travel, where appropriate. The Department and its agencies operate a travel pass scheme encouraging staff members to use public transport in both working and leisure hours, thus assisting in reducing the level of carbon emissions.

Carbon emissions caused by official travel must be balanced against the considerable benefits accruing to Ireland from business transacted on those journeys in terms of promoting trade, attracting inward investment and influencing international policy.

The recently published National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012 sets out measures to be adopted by the civil and public sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These include a requirement that each public sector body adopt greenhouse gas reduction targets and measure and report progress on achieving these targets in their annual reports.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I accept the Minister's response as far as it goes. To what extent does his Department monitor the maintenance by the various State agencies of the standards he has described? To what extent do those agencies report directly to his Department, as distinct from merely including an account of their compliance in their annual reports?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The new National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012 is putting in place a framework for all Government Departments and agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Chapter 9 of the strategy deals with that issue. The strategy places a requirement on each public sector body to adopt greenhouse gas reduction targets and to measure and report progress in achieving these targets in their annual reports. I do not chase these agencies every week or every month. Each agency's annual report must contain a separate section dealing with greenhouse gas reduction and the measures it is taking or will take to reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the strategy requires the offsetting of carbon emissions resulting from all air travel on Government business, including flights by Ministers and civil servants, from the beginning of the Kyoto commitment period in January 2008. Practical arrangements will be put in place to enable each Department to compute annually the emissions associated with its air travel and to make a contribution to an appropriate fund to secure verified emission reductions of an equivalent amount. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government calculated that its 2006 air travel would have given rise to a contribution in the general order of €5,000 if such a scheme were already in place. We are addressing this issue in practical ways.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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In the past number of years I have asked every Minister the amounts of money spent on mileage allowances compared to public transport. The answer from almost every Department, including the Minister's, is that more than 95% is spent on mileage allowances. While the stated position is that we wish to promote the use of public transport, everything in the current system encourages people to drive.

What does the Minister intend doing to change that, if anything?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Very significant investment in public transport has enhanced the situation, and Transport 21 will further improve performance regarding public transport.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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What will the Minister do in his Department?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thought the Deputy had referred to the Government as a whole.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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What will the Minister do in his Department?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Pragmatism is necessary if I am travelling around the country to areas where there is no public transport and 15 organisations wish to see me. We do not always use the car to get to Donegal or other communities, but they want to see Ministers at different times of the day. Carbon offsetting is a good practical way of dealing with the issue.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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What about the officials?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I stated in my reply that there is already a scheme to incentivise the use of public transport by officials.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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It is not working.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It exists. The most effective and practical solution, given the way in which people travel in all sorts of directions to various locations, is carbon offsetting.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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As a Cork Member, and given the colleague beside him, does the Minister accept that for a long time the financial incentive to accept a mileage allowance instead of having one's train fare reimbursed was skewed for every Member?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That is changing.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Not necessarily. If anything, the scheme has been rendered more opaque. The Minister has been in office for so long that he does not know what has changed.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is Deputy Quinn who is out of touch.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The system has changed for Deputies.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I am well aware of what has changed.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ministers do not receive a mileage allowance.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I am not imputing that for a moment.

In his supplementary question, my colleague raised the question of staff. If someone in the family of enterprise agencies, including Forfás, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, needs to travel to Limerick for a meeting, what is the difference in what that person would get if he or she went by train instead of claiming mileage? I suspect that the cash in hand for mileage as distinct from reimbursement of the train ticket is significantly greater, which is why Deputy Eamon Ryan put that to the Minister in his supplementary question.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There is more than that to the matter, including flexibility and how people want to travel. It is not all about mileage. My reference was to the system, which was changed some time ago. I have no difficulty with its being applied to civil servants through the normal channels.