Government told it should lead on green policies

The State has the power to lead by example on environmental issues through a policy of green procurement, the Dáil was told.

Fine Gael's environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said that would include "green cars, recycled paper, the lot". Mr O'Dowd said that in 2005, €55 million was spent by the Government's procurement service, including €13 million on fuels, €11.5 million on vehicles, €10 million on printing and €5 million on stationery and office supplies.

"Just imagine the difference a green procurement policy would make. Imagine if instead of buying oil, the OPW was stimulating demand for biofuels," he said during a Fine Gael private members motion on the Kyoto protocol, Ireland's energy supply and green procurement.

Calling for a "sea change" in how the State did its business and treated the environment, he said: "Imagine if instead of buying cars that pollute the atmosphere, the OPW was instructed only to replace the fleet with hybrid cars or cars that run completely on renewable sources of fuel.

"Imagine if every scrap of paper used by the State had to be recycled paper. Not only would it make a difference on its own, but the message sent to the rest of the country would be clear."

Earlier yesterday Green Party leader Trevor Sargent criticised the Government's latest climate strategy and said that the "brazen statement that Ireland is meetings its commitments" was "false" and the contents of the report were "downright lies".

He added that if Taoiseach Bertie Ahern thought the Northern peace process was difficult, "changing to a post-oil economy is of a far greater magnitude".

Mr Ahern said, however, the report had set out the comprehensive measures put in place to enable the Government to meet the Kyoto targets.

During the debate, Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey insisted the Government's commitments for the future "are being realised through immediate and tangible programmes and policies".

Outlining a number of long-term targets, he said they had a 13.2 per cent target for renewable electricity consumed. He was "confidently stating that that EU target will be achieved and we will achieve 15 per cent by 2010".

Labour's environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said: "The list of things that you're going to do is the list of things that you haven't done for the past 10 years."

He claimed this was "government by microwave". It was too late to cook up something new, so it was a case of "digging out the old stuff" and reusing it, he said, citing the climate change strategy which was "an even less ambitious document than the document published by Minister Dempsey in 2000".

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, who rejected Opposition criticisms of the Government's environmental strategy, also rejected the introduction of a carbon tax.

He said it would make no sense "because it would have dire consequences for people who live in the countryside, for small businesses".

The negatives would outweigh the positives so the Government had replaced it with better measures and introduced incentives for reducing CO2 emissions, including the realignment of motor tax and VRT.