Results 13,541-13,560 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The hope is——

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: I understand the mix of measure that are required. I refer to the ETS scheme, the purchase of carbon credits and so on. However, I do not accept the reliance on purchasing carbon on which the Government insists and which it believes it can do on the cheap.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: However, it will not be able to do so and will plunge Ireland into continuing debt.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: I did not interrupt the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The Ministers opposite should listen to the point.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Of course, we will buy carbon. It must be purchased as part of the package.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: I have not. The problem is that the Government relies almost exclusively on the purchase of carbon. The sum of €270 million that the Government states this will cost, while telling the people it is cheap at the price, would do much for the health service. However, the sum of €270 million that the Government claims will be sufficient to buy the carbon will be nowhere near enough. If...

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: I would buy as little carbon as possible.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: I would try to reduce the level of carbon emissions. Had the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, succeeded in reducing carbon emissions——

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: ——in the past ten years, we would not now be saddled with the degree of financial burden that will be their legacy when they leave office in a number of weeks' time.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Their legacy to the taxpayer will be a massive bill for the Government's irresponsibility in dealing with this issue.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The Government has failed to reduce emissions, which constitutes the major problem. The two areas that must be examined with regard to the reduction of carbon emissions are the two areas which have generated the biggest increase in emissions, the energy and transport sectors. There is no point talking about industry because industry is doing its bit. In the transport sector, the Government...

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The Government delayed it.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Hold on. In the Ministers' rush to concentrate——

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: ——on the future, they are trying to rewrite history.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Do not forget that it was the parties on this side of the House which passed the legislation to provide for the Luas.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: We put that legislation through and when the Government parties came into office in 1997, they could not make up their minds whether it should go underground or over ground and they delayed it for years.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The reason I turned up uninvited for the photocall was that the Government had a Luas carriage garaged for three years before it was put on the streets of the city because of the delays.

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Luas is a success and it would have been a success three years earlier if the Government has not delayed its introduction. It also delayed providing buses for Dublin city, while the Minister's party argued with the ideological mullahs in the Progressive Democrats about how many buses there should be in Dublin and whether those buses should be privately or publicly operated. There were no...

Kyoto Protocol: Motion (3 Apr 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The Government is now talking about rebalancing VRT and labelling new cars for fuel economy. It has been talking about rebalancing VRT and fuel economy for ten years but, again, has not done it. The Minister for Finance made a passing reference to it in the last budget but the Government still has not delivered on it.