Results 4,981-5,000 of 7,278 for speaker:Dick Roche

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: I welcome this opportunity to address the House in response to this Private Member's Bill. I thank Deputies Eamon Ryan and Cuffe who came to see me and we spoke at some length about this Bill. All of us in this House are agreed that climate change is taking place and some of the evidence has been outlined. The most visible indications of this trend include the retreat of the ice sheets on the...

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: I would argue that the Government cannot subscribe to a Bill which seeks to set long-term reduction targets on a legislative basis. These targets are properly the area of Government policy. Climate change policy has been adopted on foot of decisions taken by the Government and is based on international commitments that Ireland has signed up to and ratified, including the United Nations...

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: This commitment is already demonstrated by Ireland's signature and ratification of the Kyoto Protocol which represents a real and significant contribution to combating global climate change. Ireland's Kyoto Protocol target is to limit emissions to 13% above 1990 levels. This target is the product of negotiations at international and subsequent EU levels. The Kyoto Protocol set emissions...

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: However, such targets need to be set out in the appropriate place. Law is not the appropriate place. No other country is doing this.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: No other sane country is doing it.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: I will come back to consider the strategy and I will deal with the specific points. I would ask the Deputies to afford me the same courtesy as I afforded them because I listened to everything they said. I listened carefully to them because I was waiting for practical suggestions.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: Returning to the Government's grounds for opposing this Bill and quite separate from the Government's opposition in principle to enshrining targets in legislation, it is entirely inappropriate for legislation made by the Oireachtas to contain reduction targets on which there is as yet no international consensus.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: Scientific consensus is one matter. There is international agreement between either the EU 15 or the other members to the protocol as to where we will be on these issues in a number of years' time.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: It is a matter of the grossest political irresponsibility——

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: I recognised Deputy Cuffe's positive contributions on two occasions. I believe in praise where praise is due but also believe in the truth in this. Sadly, while the Deputy's sentiment is correct, this Bill would make no sense. It would do us irreparable damage and there is no logic to what the Deputy is proposing. The overall greenhouse gas reduction targets to which the Bill refers are not...

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: They are targets; that is why they were agreed. While the European Council agreed proposed targets for the post-2012 period, the Council also recognised the importance of engaging other major emitters outside the EU in the negotiation process and that this would require a degree of flexibility on the solutions proposed. If negotiations on targets proceed in a similar fashion to those on...

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: That is a shibboleth. It is not a reality.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: There is therefore no basis on which to adopt specific targets——

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: Deputy Eamon Ryan is being tiresome. His interruptions are not even sensible. The reality is we are talking about a moving target and he is talking about binding us to something which has not been agreed.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: I fully support the Deputy's sentiment but his sense seems to have lost him. The European Union has a strong position on climate change and on what it wants from Montreal. It is seeking a broad, open and early discussion. It hopes particularly to engage with the US, if possible, and the heavier greenhouse gas emitting developing countries such as China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa....

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: ——excise relief to biofuels projects to help stimulate Ireland's biofuels market; and revision of Part L of the building regulations to reduce energy use in new housing by 23%.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: At the time the strategy was being developed, it was projected that, in the absence of any measures to address the problem, Ireland's emissions in the Kyoto commitment period would be 37% above 1990 levels. The actual figures for recent years show that we were 31% above 1990 levels in 2001; 29% above in 2002 and 25% above in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available.

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: The Deputy is quite correct. A variety of economic circumstances and change over time——

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: ——produced precisely the positive effect of which the Deputies speak. While these reductions are positive, we cannot rest on our laurels. Rapid growth in the economy is placing an upward pressure on our greenhouse gas emissions and requires us to intensify efforts to bring about the required reductions. The latest available projections of emissions for the 2008 to 2012 period suggest...

Climate Change Targets Bill 2005: Second Stage. (29 Nov 2005)

Dick Roche: If such a document is to be meaningful, it must contain targets for reduction of emissions. However, such targets can only be set with reference to existing international commitments and to the latest available projections of Ireland's emissions profile over the 2008 to 2012 period.