Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In an ideal world everybody would like to have targets. The Senator asked how we will know how we are doing. Monitoring of the framework and the plan by the committee that will be set up and by the Government will play a huge role. I welcome the remarks last week by the EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, on the flexibility mechanisms under the EU rules. Ireland is being flexible. There is a huge agricultural production sector in the economy and obviously we must take that into consideration. The EU Commissioner said last week that Ireland is on course to meet its emissions obligation. Furthermore, we are on course to over-achieve our 2013 to 2017 obligations. While this legislation leaves room for manoeuvre on exact targets, this achievement shows our commitment to ensure that we not only achieve the minimum goals but, as the Commissioner said, to over-achieve on 2013 to 2017 obligations. Of course, we must be careful about the 2020 targets because they will be more stringent. I have some suggestions, which I will give to the Minister, on how we can help in that.

I will be talking against myself because I drive a diesel car at present. With regard to the Paris negotiations next month, every country in Europe except the UK has a lower tax rate on diesel cars than on petrol cars. That is the reason I invested in a diesel car. The first studies that were done found that there was 5% to 10% less climate pollution from diesel cars. This was before Volkswagen was caught out for what it was doing. However, new research has shown that petrol is better. By 2010, the design of the petrol car was improved and the direct climate emissions saving on new diesel cars had been cut to 1.5%. That is one of the matters I will put to the Minister. It is something we can examine.

Obviously, we must ensure that we set targets for each Department, and the Minister will do that, but it must be done within the constraints. I would love to set a target here and now but we must be realistic as well to ensure that human activity is encouraged to do what is right.