Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 126: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps he will take over the next year to enable the State to meet its Kyoto obligations and to reduce CO2 emissions; and the date on which he will publish a revised climate change strategy. [42466/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I refer to the reply to Question No. 4 of 8 November 2006.

A number of additional measures have been announced by the Minister for Finance in his Budget statement on 6 December 2006. These include:

a commitment to purchase up to €270 million Carbon Credits;

proposals for linking VRT and motor tax to carbon dioxide emissions and for enhanced mandatory emissions labelling;

introduction of VRT relief for electric cars on a one year pilot basis;

abolition on excise reductions for kerosene and liquid petroleum gas used in home heating;

extension of the SEI Greener Homes Scheme by €20 million between 2007 and 2009;

expansion of the SEI Commercial Bioheat Scheme to cover the installation of technologies such as solar panels in commercial premises and for buildings in the non-commercial sector such as community centres and sports facilities;

provision of an additional €3m to enable SEI to support small and medium enterprises to assess their energy usage and introduce measures to enhance energy efficiency;

extension of corporation tax relief for investment in renewable energy for a further 5 years;

new establishment grants for willow and miscanthus bioenergy crops;

introduction of support for €80 per hectare for qualifying energy crops in addition to an EU support of €45 per hectare; and

grant aid support for biomass harvesting machinery.

Work on the review of the National Climate Change Strategy will be completed as soon as possible.