Dr. Roderick O'Gorman:

I agree with the Deputy that it is essential we meet the 2020 target. I am also concerned with the difficulty in achieving the 2050 target. What we do to achieve the 2020 target will involve the low-hanging fruit, while achieving the 2050 target will require a large-scale shift in the economy. My concern is that by not having a specific target for 2050, we will not have a step-by-step piecemeal approach. Such an approach does not allow us to plan for the scale of the jump we will need to make to get to the target for 2050. Some of the EU documents being circulated are talking about higher figures.