Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time and the greatest opportunity for us to switch to a more secure, sustainable and just economic model. However, our draft national climate mitigation plan is an unmitigated disaster. The head of the EPA says that the Government’s policy measures are failing. John FitzGerald, the head of the climate advisory group, says the plan lacks substance, detail and analysis. The environmental NGOs have given it an F rating and it is lucky not to have been given a G rating.

In terms of the European Union, we are now mentioned in the same breath as Poland. There are only two countries in the EU that will not meet their emission targets and we are one of them. There are only four countries which are not going to meet the renewable targets. This country, which has some of the richest renewable resources in the world, is unfortunately in that category and heading in the wrong direction. The Institute of International and European Affairs estimates that those failures could cost us between €3 billion and €6 billion over the next decade.

What do we have? We have a Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, who has the cheek to say the problem is that we were too ambitious. During the Green Party’s period in Government between 2008 and 2011, emissions fell by 15 %. Half of that drop was due to the economic downturn but the EPA recognised that the other half was because of political commitment in government to the issue at that time. The EPA projects that we are now facing a 15% increase in emissions up to 2030. If we were to take this issue seriously and grab the opportunity, we would go in the opposite direction.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, was absent from the talks and had no interest whatsoever. The plan has many gaps where there should be transport initiatives.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine says to count agriculture out because that sector has nothing to do with it. This is part of the reason - and it is not just because there are thousands of acres of forestry burning in the west today - that we are turning this green island brown. This is not in the interests of farmers, landowners or foresters.

We do not have a single public transport project ready to go to tender. We cannot get a cycle lane built along the Liffey quays because of a lack of funding from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and as a result of a lack of political support at council level. We cannot build a greenway to Galway; it could even go by that plant in Athenry that the Government can get built for Apple, which will be an innovative part of the new green economy because it will be 100% powered by renewable energy. The Danes are building a similar plant and while matters here are stuck in planning, they are actually going to commission that facility. Will the Taoiseach tell us what is going to change and what the Government is going to do differently? The lack of political ambition and lack of economic understanding in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is at the core of our failure. It is the Government's responsibility to stop this country going from green to brown and to start grasping the opportunity that is before us.

Deputy Eamon Ryan has been talking about change recently. He stated that he wants to become quite promiscuous - from a party point of view of course - and that he is quite prepared to jump into bed with any other political party in order to be back in government. The Deputy was in government and he had some very good ideas, many of which were not followed through.

He had some bad ideas also.

I share Deputy Eamon Ryan's enthusiasm for dealing with climate change and where we stand in that respect. Ireland's profile is the same as that of New Zealand and it is very different from most other countries. Ireland is the most carbon-efficient producer of milk in the world and the fifth most efficient producer of beef in Europe. If milk quotas go and Ireland is in a position to double the national herd-----

The quotas are gone.

-----then there is an issue in respect of being able to protect our farmers and deal with natural emissions of methane gas.

The Deputy will be aware that climate change is one of the key environmental issues globally, not just in Ireland. In the context of the scale of transformation, there is a real challenge for the State to meet its targets between 2020 and 2030. It is not a case of being ambitious enough; it is a case of having letting this slip in Tokyo in the first instance, where our profile - for what it was - was not recognised. It should have been the case of building the ambition on top of that and of not in making the target completely unreachable. The extent of the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line our EU and international commitments - including the Paris Agreement - is well understood by Government. The best technical minds are working on this to see how we can be ambitious between 2020 and 2030 and meet with our requirements in that regard. These are reflected in the 2014 national policy position on climate action and low-carbon development, which is underpinned by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. The national policy and the 2015 Act provide the high-level policy and statutory direction for the adoption and implementation of successive national mitigation plans.

The Deputy spoke of building the greenway from Athlone to Galway. Does he not appreciate the difficulties that arise when one tries to do something like that? It is now virtually impossible to make any move in this country without taking into account the litigious nature of people. This presents difficulties and, under the law of the land, there are opportunities for people to object to everything. It is not possible to walk in on farmer X or farmer Y and say that we are suddenly putting in place compulsory purchase orders in respect of their land in order that we might put in place a greenway to allow people to pass through. There must be a process of consultation and discussion in the same way that I hope Ministers will be able to bring forward the regulations relating to wind turbines in the next weeks. We have had this debate for quite some time, including around carbon emissions, diesel emissions and the fraudulent activity of a number of motoring companies that have resulted in fines which are exceptionally high.

The measures include the emissions trading scheme; the carbon tax; the renewable electricity support schemes; the renewable energy prototype development funding; financial supports through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, large industry energy network and the small to medium enterprises support schemes; social housing energy efficiency upgrades; the near zero energy building standards; the building energy rating certificates; the public sector energy efficiency strategy; public transport investments and smarter travel initiatives; tax and financial incentives for low-emission vehicles; biofuels obligation schemes; the Rural Development Programme; and the forestry programme. These are all areas in which Ireland is working intensively to meet its targets and live up to its requirements.

We are not working hard enough. The reason I spoke about going into coalition with other parties is that I have a sense of urgency. We need to pull together, left and right. I will work with anyone here to try to achieve these goals. We would go into government with the aim of effecting change, working harder and going further. My experience is that it is possible. We protected the metro project right through the hardest budget decisions and times. We had it ready to go with European Investment Bank, EIB, funding. It was in the four-year plan. Fine Gael's Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport will need to answer this question in the next few weeks. He killed it and now we are all paying the cost.

The Deputy's banking crisis killed it.

We introduced building retrofit schemes that helped people to save money and create warmer homes. During the time of the current and last Government, the level of activity halved. We were able to get EIB funding for a €500 million interconnector which helps us balance our power. No other EIB project has gone through in the last five years because we do not have ambition. The Government lacks ambition and the understanding that we need to do more. That need is clear to anyone looking at its plan, which only sets out about 60% of the response we need. Where is the other 40%? What is the Government going to do differently?

We are going to work harder and are working very hard. Another Private Members' Bill was introduced by Deputy Pringle, seeking to amend the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014. It seeks to instruct the NTMA to divest the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund from its fossil fuel assets within five years of the Act's commencement. The Bill's intention is that this timeline will assist in the orderly management of Ireland's climate change commitments on decarbonisation under article 2 of the Paris Agreement. That debate took place on 19 January. The Government tabled a reasoned amendment which was put to a vote on 26 January and defeated. The Bill has now been referred to the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach.

Does the Taoiseach want credit for that?

On a point of order, has Deputy Pringle become a Member of the Government or something?

It is fine for Deputy Ryan to come in and tell me to do all of these things. We have opened a European Investment Bank office in Dublin for major projects. Maybe the Deputy has forgotten the time he was in government. It is not as easy as he thinks to put in his interconnector-----

We built it.

-----to put up his wind farms and solar panels, or put in his greenways.

Zero energy government.

These are all wonderful aspirations but if the Deputy visited the communities he would find a very different reaction from his nice perception of people saying we will all be energy and fuel efficient and we will all have emissions control and we will have a lovely country.

The Taoiseach should have some faith.

It took 16 years to bring the gas pipeline in from the Corrib field and there were legitimate reasons for that as it went through one court case after another. The gas is now flowing.

I support the Deputy in so many ways. We have to become more understanding of what climate change and climate action actually mean. It is the overriding requirement not just for Ireland but for the planet. It is perfectly evident now from the storms, hurricanes, cyclones, increased flooding, icebergs off the Antarctic, the way the Northwest Passage in the Arctic is now open summer after summer, that the world is changing. With the heating of the Atlantic, if the temperature goes up another half degree the entire salmon stock will move 1,000 miles north. These are all massive challenges that have to be met. Ireland will play its part but it cannot happen overnight. The chance might come for Deputy Ryan again sometime to play his part in government. One never knows.