“A lot of people on the Independent ticket say they want to stop Ireland going green” Achi-News

talking to Independent Sunday In his cabinet before the Green Party conference at the weekend, Mr Ryan also dismissed budget speculation being floated by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ahead of their party conferences, saying the government would be limited in what it could do in the October budget.

“In the last few weeks, we heard that the budget commits to this and that – but the reality is that the budget will be relatively limited, because we agreed on the salary deal for the public. It must be progressive, and we are stopping a lot of emergency support,” he said.

The environment minister said he was looking beyond the budget and instead preparing for future coalition talks.

He said he would not launch any of his green policies ahead of the upcoming election, leaving it to other parties to outline their climate action commitments.

“The question I would ask other parties is whether they will continue the tradition of this government, and set aside 10% of the capital budgets for transportation and active travel, and spend two to one in favor of public transportation versus roads – because if we don’t do that, we won’t deliver all the rail projects we have ready to go,” he said.

Today’s news in 90 seconds – April 21, 2024

He also said he would ask the parties whether they would continue to support EU green policies such as the Nature Restoration Directive.

Mr Ryan said the European and local elections would be crucial, and voters would have to choose between voting for green policies or weighing growing support for independent candidates who oppose his party’s platform.

“A lot of people running on this independent ticket say they want to stop us going green. I think the electorate has that choice in front of them.

“I will argue that we should continue to be green. It suits our country. We can do it in a way that is socially progressive, and it is good for the economy,” he said.

Mr Ryan said he “doesn’t take anything personally” from his dial exchanges with the Healy-Ray brothers, Michael and Danny, or other unidentified TDs, and hopes they won’t feel offended by anything he says in response.

He remains adamant the public is embracing his proposals for a greener country with lower carbon emissions, saying he has traveled the country visiting local authorities to see how money is being spent on green measures.

“We need to continue to be green. It suits our country.

Specifically on Kerry, home of the Healy-Ray brothers, Mr Ryan listed a number of green initiatives his department has supported, such as the Connecting Ireland bus services across the Dingle Peninsula, which has “taken off” with an increase of 1,700 units in the past year. He also pointed to Kerry dairy farmers working together on “smart green farming”.

“I talked to Danny [Healy-Rae] Recently and I said: ‘I have bad news for you lieutenant, the kingdom is turning green’. And that’s it – and it’s the same all over the country. People want to do it,” he said.

Mimicking his brother’s accents, the minister said Michael Healy-Rae would have you believe that “electric vehicles are the worst curse ever”.

“Come on. Electric vehicles are going to be a very attractive prospect and you won’t have a problem charging them, because you’ll be charging them at home,” Mr Ryan said.

He also agreed he needed to do more to encourage people to get out of their cars and use public transport instead.

According to him, he does not believe that congestion charges are the best way to reduce the number of cars on the roads in big cities, and instead he is in favor of traffic calming measures.

This is already happening in Dublin with more and more restrictions on where drivers in the capital can drive. He also has plans to bring in additional measures and bus corridors.

We need to improve it – but we do

The minister has already outlined strategies for introducing new rail services across the country and has secured significant funding in the national development plan for his projects.

The minister also wants to improve Dublin’s bus service, particularly the technology behind so-called “real-time” information on the bus. He admitted that passengers are left frustrated at bus stops when the live timetable does not always correspond with the bus service.

“It’s not working well enough, and we need to improve it – but we are,” he said.

Mr Ryan said he also wanted a more “integrated” ticketing system that would allow passengers to use their phones to pay for public transport. This in turn will help make real-time information more accurate.

He insisted that this is not a long-term project and he hopes to have an upgraded system sooner rather than later.