Mr. James Nix:

I will give some figures on the peat-burning power stations because it brings into sharp focus what we need to do for 2030. The subsidy for the Edenderry plant is in the region of €5 million. The public subsidy for the Lanesboro and Shannonbridge power plants is in excess of €20 million each. That is an enormous amount of taxpayers' money being spent to subsidise a fuel that is twice as climate polluting as coal. A review of those subsidy levels was promised two years ago and it has yet to commence. I could list about half a dozen steps on which the Government should move to take out subsidies which do not make sense. Another simple example concerns truck taxation. There are anomalies in that on which there has been a long-standing plan to fix but we have not started the process of fixing it.

On the Irish economy in 2030, all projections indicate that even if very strong action is taken now, there is very significant pressure on the climate in terms of increasing temperatures. Unfortunately, we will probably see the price of food and energy, which are inextricably linked, increasing. We are looking at a far lower input economy but that is not to say we will be a less happy or social nation. We are probably looking at a more social, contented nation without the level of hyper-activity that we will look back and see this generation had.

On enforceability of the targets in terms of the roadmap, it has to turn on a level of cohesion within a Cabinet setting because unless there is a collective buy-in by the Cabinet and a decision taken to sign up to it every five years, with the Cabinet saying this is what it will do and these are our climate targets, and unless the Taoiseach is willing to enforce that, it will be a waste of time. The Taoiseach and the Government can always change the law. They could pass this law tomorrow. It could be the best law in the world but eight or ten years from now a Government could decide to repeal it. It will never work in the long term unless successive Taoisigh decide to buy into it. I would be on the other side of the fence on so many issues. I would say we have to be able to go into court and litigate this but on this one we are not of that view because there is a realisation that unless the political system buys into this nothing will happen.

Some of the background material on climate is troubling. The members have heard this already but without action we are looking at a 4o to 6o rise in temperature by 2050. If I live to the average age, that is within my lifetime.