I take the Taoiseach's response as a "Yes", which puts the ball back on the Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Labour Party side of the court. That is a positive and welcome development. Regardless of whether the carbon tax is €80 or €90 per tonne by 2030, my suggestion is the appropriate way to reach our objective.

Yesterday, during Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach stated he was confident we would achieve our 2030 targets. He also said the Government had experience as it had delivered the Action Plan for Jobs. That is like saying we climbed the Sugar Loaf so we will climb Mount Everest tomorrow. That is the scale of the change and challenge involved. The leap we have to make is huge. As Professor John Fitzgerald has said, we are rapidly moving in the wrong direction. As the Taoiseach now admits, the development plan will not work and will bring us one third of the way at most. The development plan says that by 2021 we will be deep retrofitting 45,000 houses a year. That is the best, most beneficial and economic way to tackle this issue but we do not have the workers or money in place. We have to set all of this up. I come back to my key point. The time is now. To do this new plan by Christmas, when we have to present it to the European Commission, we need agreement on a whole range of complex and difficult issues. I am glad the Taoiseach seems to be agreeing with what we are suggesting on the carbon tax. I put it to the other parties that if, in committee, they agree on that one element and any other elements on which we can get agreement-----

Deputy Ryan had four years in government to do it.

We introduced the carbon tax.

The Green Party did nothing.

We introduced the exact same approach.

I agree that it is and will be an enormous challenge to meet our 2030 targets. We are starting at a pretty bad point because we did not meet our 2020 targets. The economic challenges we faced seven, eight or nine years ago were also huge. People were talking then about endless austerity and saying Ireland would never get out of austerity. They were talking about defaulting on our debts and some even advocated doing so.

They included the Taoiseach if I remember correctly.

People were saying we would have long-term unemployment for very long periods. However, we are now in a very different place. We have full employment, balanced books, a national debt which is decreasing, and an economy that is resulting in increased living standards for great numbers of people. When I compared this issue with the unemployment crisis and the Action Plan for Jobs, I was acknowledging that it is a big deal. It is, however, a job that can be done. I do not often find that Leaders' Questions moves things on in policy terms, but perhaps it does today. Deputy Eamon Ryan and I are probably thinking along the same lines in terms of what should be done on the carbon tax.

The Taoiseach raised this issue last August and has done nothing since.

That was then.

Instead of the old politics of "he said, you said, she said", let me now join with Deputy Ryan-----

The Taoiseach is in the Executive and Government. He should do something about the issue. He is in la-la land about this stuff.

-----and ask the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin whether they will sign up to a price for carbon in 2030-----

Given that Trump changes his mind every day, what should we expect? As I said, it is more Trump than Trudeau.

-----whether they will agree to a trajectory to increase carbon taxes over that period and whether they will agree to the principle that it will all be paid back through tax credits and welfare.

The Taoiseach dodged the issue. He dodged it in the budget and he dodged it just half an hour ago.

Will Deputies please show a bit of decorum?