A shocking report published today by the European Environment Agency states that in Ireland, greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector since 1990 were almost six times higher than the European Union average. This confirms the report last week by the Environmental Protection Agency that ten years after minimal targets were agreed in Kyoto, ten years during which this Government was in power, this country has doubled those emissions. Worryingly, it was not just in the early days of this Government but in 2004, 2005 and 2006 that the increases continued apace, with transport being the biggest contributor, particularly road transport, while emissions from air transport have also drastically increased.

The Environmental Protection Agency puts the increases down to increasing vehicle numbers, larger vehicles, increased reliance on private cars and increasing road freight. It points out that emissions from energy generation in the State are also a factor. Does this not reflect a total failure by the Government in its ten years in power to make any serious effort to implement definitive policies that would drastically cut carbon emissions?

Specifically, the Taoiseach is presiding over the complete winding down of rail freight transport. The Government has failed to transform public transport infrastructure to enable tens of thousands of people in cities and towns, and I include myself, to change from being forced into private transport to taking public transport. The Government has not curbed the crazy situation where airlines are allowed to relentlessly advertise in competition with each other to convince us to go everywhere every second weekend just to blow our noses, while attacking workers' conditions to maximise their profits.

A third of the population lives in Dublin so why do buses from the hugely populated suburbs such as Swords or Ongar still proceed at a snail's pace daily, mired in traffic while meandering like Wanderly Wagon around estates before getting to the city centre, when an efficient system could be implemented, with continuous bus corridors and enough buses that would get people from Clonee to Dublin city in 35 minutes, enabling tens of thousands to transfer to public transport? That is the way forward, why is it not being done in a proactive way?

As usual, I do not agree with Deputy Joe Higgins. It has been the success of the economy and the generation of growth and employment which has brought us to this position, not the opposite.

On the growth in transport emissions, we are behind most European countries in car ownership but increased prosperity has brought about increased car ownership rates, one of the main reasons the country is above the target for greenhouse gas emissions that we must meet in the next few years.

Transport emissions pose a particular challenge to this country but they are only one element of greenhouse gas emissions. Seven of the EU 15, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain, are much further from the EU targets than Ireland in the report the Deputy referred to. Our progress is reflected in the emissions intensity of the economy. In 2004, emissions per unit of GDP were only 48% of what they were at the 1990 level, while the equivalent figure in the European Union is 78%. The growth in transport emissions reflects that a significant volume of fuel, petrol and diesel sold for use outside the State is accounted for in our country's emissions.

Our massive investment in public transport under Transport 21 covered the issues the Deputy raised. It is central to putting transport on a more sustainable footing in Ireland. In addition we continue to take measures to incentivise low emission vehicles and bio-fuels. In the budget in December, we announced a rebalancing of vehicle registration tax and road tax.

After the election.

From January carbon dioxide emissions rather than engine size will provide the basis for these taxes. The proposals and rebalancing initiatives are currently open for public consultation.

I agree about the bus corridors, that is why we bought over 100 new buses. I also agree with the Deputy about rail transport, that is why we bought 60 new rail cars, with 12 being introduced this month. There are other plans to buy more buses.

Too late.

There has been huge progress on the quays thanks to the success of the port tunnel in taking trucks from residential areas, which will help the environment in these areas. The Deputy's support in trying to convince people to put more bus corridors in place is welcome.

The communications unit was obviously on the ball. It had the Taoiseach briefed on the contents of today's newspapers and he had his briefing statement ready.

The Deputy is just predictable. It is all spin and nothing more.

Deputy Kelleher should watch himself or we will slap an ASBO on him.

The Taoiseach did not, however, get to grips with the essentials of the question. Why are public transport subsidies among the lowest in the European Union under this Government over the last ten years? Why are our electricity generating stations burning more peat now when alternative energy sources have been available for years and have not been sufficiently invested in by the State to replace carbon emitting generation?

Is it not extraordinary that in this country and internationally, faced with this real crisis that everyone agrees threatens ecosystems and humanity, the political establishment will establish a stock exchange in carbon emissions to move the issue into another speculators' charter, buying and selling the right to pollute? Is that not an incredible indictment of the approach of this and other Governments?

Two Ministers last week were out pretending to be champions of the taxpayer with regard to the legal costs of the planning tribunal, one of whom has responsibility for emissions.

The Deputy should ask one question on a topical issue. He is moving away from his question and has gone way over time.

No, I am merely contrasting that with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government ignoring the massive fines and waste of taxpayers' money he is leaving the country exposed to by virtue of not cutting emissions back.

Instead of these transport plans for 2015 or whenever, could we have practical, immediate measures, particularly with regard to bus services in this and other cities, that will enable us all to make the switch by tens of thousands to public transport, giving us a better quality of life in the process?

In the past year we have invested more than €80 million into Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus — I believe it will be the same this year — and there are the new Korean trains. The Deputy cannot make those arguments without acknowledging that there is huge investment. It is not in the future, in ten or 15 years' time.

Investment is six to one in favour of roads.

It is happening now. There has probably been more investment in the past two years than there was at any period over the decades. It is an enormous amount. The entire public transport budget for this year is not much short of €800 million.

Our public transport is abysmal.

Deputy Gormley is not the leader of his party.

The Lanesboro peat station and the peat station in the midlands both operate with new technology which is highly efficient. Security of supply is obviously enormously important. The Finns, who are on top of the list in all these issues, use peat because of their resources. If the Deputy believes we should not be doing that, he has the wrong end of it. We have a high reliance on fossil fuels for power generation. Last week I spelt out what we are doing in the agricultural sector and cement production. We also have a high level of fuel purchases for use outside the State. It is estimated that 10% of petrol and 25% of diesel sold in this country was consumed outside the State. Those figures, of course, are put in as 18% of total emissions from road transport.

On the question of things being done now, we have set a steeply ambitious target to deliver one third of electricity from renewable sources of energy. We have maximum use of new technologies for co-generation of power stations. We have biomass and planning for the use of carbon capture and clean coal generation, all of which is happening now. Creating opportunity for farmers in bio-fuel production, creating a new bio-fuel industry in the country, introducing a minimum requirement for the use of bio-fuels in State-owned and public transport vehicles, starting with Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann, both of which have been instructed to move all their existing fleet to 5% biodiesel blend——

It is all mañana.

——with a plan to achieve a 30% biodiesel blend in all new buses, and requiring the public sector to lead the way in energy efficiency are all being done now.

They are not being done.

There are targets for the future but they are all being done now——

We will not have a future.

——with huge support from the Green Party as the Deputy can see. These issues are all being done.

Hot air.

The Green Party is not hot air. That is a very unfair thing to say. We are pressing ahead with these initiatives and we are doing it very quickly.

The Taoiseach is making the case valiantly anyway.