My question does not concern the waste of €40 million by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government but a cost of €300 million per annum to the taxpayer courtesy of inefficiencies in Government, led in this case by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Newspapers today inform us that taxpayers will foot a €300 million bill for the State's failure to achieve its targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that the figure of €300 million is accurate? If not, what figure would he place on the cost of the Government's failure to achieve the Kyoto Protocol targets? While the Government plans to gives free allowance to the high carbon dioxide emitters as long as they continue with business as usual, what will the Taoiseach do about the increasing emissions which will arise from, for example, the 380,000 tonne incinerator to be located beside the Platin cement works, one of the large emitters of CO2? Is it part of Government policy to continue to permit more CO2 emissions and ask the taxpayer to pay for carbon trading or is the Government going to take note of the UK and German Governments which are talking about a 60% cut in CO2 emissions?

Will the Government outline how it proposes to contemplate the actions that need to be taken? No decision has been taken on the western rail corridor, high energy efficiency buildings are long awaited, there is a lack of help for people trying to install energy efficient or renewable energy systems and a block on growth in the wind sector. Will the Government revise its policies which go against the Kyoto Protocol so that the taxpayer will not be landed with a bill of €300 million per annum?

Our obligation is to produce our plans and to prepare them, on a voluntary basis, for 2012. The Irish plan will be completed before 31 March. There is no difficulty about that.

The national allocation plan for the start of emissions trading for 2005 to 2007 was developed to protect competitiveness and to establish environmental rigour for the Kyoto phase, which is 2008 to 2012. Industry and the power generating sectors will have more rigorous targets for pilot emissions trading during the learning by doing phase, as it is known.

Free quota.

The intent is to put emissions on a downward path and to meet the national targets for the Kyoto Protocol.

We are failing.

The national allocation plan does this. This will be produced shortly. It will allow for a start in using innovative means of controlling emissions and supporting continuing growth in a sustainable manner.

Does the Taoiseach believe that?

Deputy Sargent referred to the successes of Germany and Britain. He did not say that they achieve this success through using their nuclear industries.

They are talking about 60%.

Deputy Eamon Ryan should allow the Taoiseach to speak without interruption. The Deputy is not the leader of his party and the Chair will be left with no choice but to take appropriate action.

We do not want to go down the nuclear road. The overall allocation to the emissions trading sector will represent an estimated average of 96% to 98% of all expected emissions from the sector, and 95% of the allowances must be made available free by the terms of the EU directive. For Ireland, at least 2.25% of the allocations will not be available for allocation to existing installations free of charge, 1.5% will be retained for new installations, 0.75% will be auctioned to defray the Environmental Protection Agency's costs and any excess of the allowances for new entrants and allowances not issued to installations that close will be auctioned for the benefit of the Exchequer.

Again, I must correct the Taoiseach. The German Government is phasing out nuclear power, thanks to the Green Party in that country. We welcome that. Against the 16,000 MW of wind power there, we have a paltry 160 MW in Ireland. The Taoiseach will have to look at the overall picture and realise that a nod and a wink to Kyoto is not enough. Has he taken legal advice on the climate change national allocation plan? That plan is not just inadequate but it could well be in breach of EU rules that require that all emissions reductions measures are planned and specified and the EU needs to be assured that Government is not giving illegal State aid to large industries by allocating them higher emissions than is consistent with meeting the Kyoto target. The Taoiseach states in his vague reply that the allocation plan for the pilot phase for the Kyoto phase is based on a reduction in these omissions of 1.16 million tons. He continues that the precise mix of additional policies to require this reduction is still to be finalised. When will the Taoiseach outline the additional policies so we will not be landed in legal difficulties regarding the environment?

The plan will be presented before 31 March 2004. Deputy Sargent knows well that all countries in Europe are examining this and taking measures, as we have done, to balance competitiveness and environmental objectives. That is the correct way to proceed. Many industries are moving from oil to gas and taking preventive steps and changing technologies——

We are the worst.

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

Many are changing the processes they use. The target for the Kyoto phase sets industry a much greater challenge. On the basis of the best available projections, the indicative allocation for the 2008 to 2012 period is estimated to be 83% of the installation space case emissions averaged over the Kyoto phase. Industry will have to make up this shortfall, which is a substantial difficulty for industry. However, Government purchases during the Kyoto phase will only be used to offset emissions in the rest of the economy and will not be made available to industry.

We are at the very bottom of the league.

When do we hear the Taoiseach's policy?