Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps he has taken directly or indirectly to achieve compliance with the Kyoto protocols; the extent to which each or any measure taken has had a specific affect or effect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36686/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The national climate change strategy provides the basis for Government policy and action to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the most efficient and equitable manner, and for ensuring that Ireland meets its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The strategy identifies a range of policies and measures to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions across various sectors and is currently under review in my Department so as to take account of developments at national, European and international levels since its publication five years ago.

While my Department has overall responsibility for the strategy, it is a matter for Departments with direct responsibility for each sector identified in the strategy to implement the optimum mix of policies and measures in order to control and reduce Ireland's overall level of greenhouse gas emissions. To take a few examples from the wide range of measures involved, my Department has made progress in areas such as giving the building regulations a greater focus on energy conservation, the development of planning guidelines on wind energy, reducing emissions from waste facilities and the conversion of National Parks and Wildlife Service vehicles to biofuels. Examples of progress in other sectors include more efficient power generation plants, support for renewable energy, improvements in public transport, tax incentives for more fuel-efficient cars and biofuels, and the recent decision by the Minister for Agriculture to provide support for anaerobic digestion.

I intend shortly to publish a review document, which will assess progress in implementing the strategy, assess emissions trends across each sector and propose additional measures for Ireland to meet its target for the purposes of the Kyoto Protocol in the most cost effective way. I will emphasise the need for Ireland to look at this issue in a holistic way, and to take account of our Kyoto requirements when we are setting policies across all the relevant sectors.

In addition to the policies and measures set out in the national climate change strategy, Ireland's Kyoto target will also be achieved through emissions reductions by installations participating in the EU emissions trading scheme and through the purchase by Government of carbon credits sufficient to address any shortfall.