Dr. Peter Doran:

The main risk for this process is the perception that the challenge of long-term transition will undermine economic recovery within sections of business and industry. There is also, as we know, significant nervousness within agriculture. I am saying a genuinely independent, well resourced and expert-led body would provide us with the ability to present scenarios to these sectors and define very clearly where their actual capacity for transition lies in the short, medium and long term. It would allow us to begin to see where that capacity might be exhausted at any particular moment in the short term and thereby ascertain more clearly, in the context of the opportunities, the validity of the special pleading, defensiveness and occasional misrepresentation we have had from these sectors. It is the role of an independent, robust and well resourced expert body to throw some light on the type of politicisation that leads to obfuscation and which might well undermine this very unique moment in Irish political decision-making where we have a consensus that can be translated into a long-term trajectory of action on climate change.

The United Kingdom legislation is built on the notion of incremental momentum. Nobody is trying to reset the economy overnight, but what we have there is a very clear set of mandates, reporting requirements and duties on the Minister which serve to build a political momentum and turn the legislation itself into an ally in stretching all sectors and politicians to embark on this journey. It will not be easy. In the longer term, as the transition progresses, there will be winners and losers. We need an expert body which would facilitate that type of incremental process and allow new ideas to emerge without the type of defensiveness that tends to stem from our immediate economic conditions.