Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Ireland's Trade Relationship with Canada: Discussion

Mr. Jonathan O'Hara:

I will be brief. I agree with Mr. Collenette on a number of points. Certainly the Government of Canada is very climate change focused. There are a lot of efforts in that direction. I agree with Mr. Collenette that the centre the Deputy referred to is not a government initiative. To add something to what Mr. Collenette said about not being able to move off oil and gas quickly, this is certainly a challenge the Government of Canada is really struggling with. We are a very natural resource-rich nation and it is about how that is going to work out. With respect to oil and gas, there is a lot of oil and gas, especially oil, used in non-energy contexts. To Mr. Collenette's point that we are not going to be able to shut that off immediately, petrochemicals, plastics and all those kinds of things are going to be needed in future for probably a significant amount of time and it is really just a way of doing those things as cleanly as we can. Oil and gas production is not all the same and so there are ways to do it that are better than others.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.