Ivana Bacik (Independent)

It is unfortunate that this Bill was not passed into law before the British Act was passed, but given that they have passed it, it shows that an argument against passing our Bill into law has been removed. It is clearly possible and practical to pass legislation creating binding targets for reductions in carbon emissions. It is becoming obvious that we have no option but to do so, or else we will never meet the modest Kyoto targets. I ask the Deputy Leader for further time to debate Second Stage and, if necessary, to move on to the next Stage of the Climate Protection Bill. It is vital that we do so, and there is a great deal of support across the parties in this House, and in the other House, for that.

I ask the Deputy Leader also for a debate on protections of listed buildings. In recent weeks we have seen the destruction of two buildings — a 19th century Methodist church near Croke Park and a 19th century convent in Terenure, for which a developer was fined a derisory €1,000 for illegally demolishing that convent. There appears to be an absence of appropriate sanctions for developers who demolish buildings illegally and, with the Green Party in Government, it would be appropriate to debate that issue.

There has been a good deal of misplaced concern expressed in this House about the protection of embryos in terms of embryonic stem cell research. We might reflect on the real concern we should feel for people we know who have Parkinson's disease——