Mr. Peter Brennan:

Ireland has a requirement to implement the emissions reduction targets set in the burden-sharing directive. We have to take 8 million tonnes of carbon out of the economy. That has already been agreed. The annual targets or allocations have been agreed. We must have a plan to ensure this happens. I refer to the national plan. The targets kicked into effect on 1 January and it is now July. The national plan might be prepared at the end of this year, and implementation of the sectoral plans might commence next year, so we are already significantly behind in putting into place the plans and the supporting sectoral strategies. Hence, I believe this is extremely urgent. The sooner the national plan, which must be subject to consultation, is in the public domain, the better. We could wait until the legislation is enacted at the end of January and start the national planning cycle next year but we would then be 18 months or two years behind target. If we are to be innovative and offer leadership, we should perhaps set up the expert body on an interim basis and get working on the national plan. This is a personal view. If the committee is of the view that the setting up of an expert body is a cross-party initiative that members could support, the Government could probably put it into play sooner rather than later, or rather than waiting for another six months. We do not have any time to wait around. We have been waiting for a national plan for quite some time. The two NESC reports have given us considerable evidence pointing to what should be in the plan; it just needs to be wrapped around the autonomous body.

Nobody should be on the body "as of right". I would take a cue from the word "expert" because the people who sit on the board will have to know what climate change is about and have a fundamental understanding of emissions, emissions trading, energy efficiency and all the dimensions of climate policy and the international political arena in which we will be operating up to 2050. It is not just a question of climate change as it is also a question of energy, natural resource efficiency and a global discussion. The Government will have to pick experts. It would be absolutely wrong for us to suggest who they might be. It is understandable that the NGO sector would wish to be part of the expert group. I have no particular problems with that. Everyone would like to be on the expert group but I would imagine it will have to be fairly small if it is to be independent and fairly autonomous.