Dr. Roderick O'Gorman:

The 2005 Disability Act contained no consequences for non-achievement, apart from the embarrassment of having a report on it. The insertion of specific domestic targets into law would provide a goal for the apparatus of State and representatives of the key economic players. When the EU 2030 targets are negotiated, they will be transposed and introduced in a direct manner of application. They will then automatically be binding. If they are more stringent than the targets put in place by this Bill, they will apply. If they are less stringent, we will have a certain amount of wiggle room for a period. I do not see how allowing the apparatus of State to start to plan for a target in that range would be a bad development. When one examines the scope of change required in the economy to get to the 80% target in 2050, it will be one of the most massive shifts we will have ever seen. When one is about to engage in such a massive shift, I cannot understand why one would not decide not to start planning towards that shift now.