Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If Members do not mind, I shall amalgamate my comments on their concerns as there was a bit of overlap.

I shall first address a very real issue. I accept there is genuine concern about the legislation. My plan is to publish it next month, if at all possible, and I believe we will meet that deadline. As Members are probably aware, it is on the priority list of all legislation with a view to enacting it as quickly as possible. I accept we need to get the legislation published. It is a priority for the Government. A lot of it is like an accordion as there is fallout from the legislation.

In terms of sectoral plans and their development, a steering group has been put in place. A lot of work is ongoing so that time would not be lost. Those plans will, in line with the legislation, be published accordingly once the legislation has been enacted. A timeline of 24 months has been set to put them in place in the legislation. We might look at that aspect in the legislation, if needs be. I accept that the sectoral plans must be in great detail and be for a defined period in order to achieve the necessary results.

There is a requirement to set up an expert group. As the committee will be aware, I am in the process of concluding that aspect. Separately Members have asked questions on the matter on previous occasions or through parliamentary questions. The process is under way and is very near conclusion. I hope to be able to make announcements on same. We need that group to advise us because this is moving at a serious pace. I refer to the technologies that can be used, the changes that float across various jurisdictions and how we can learn from such situations. Somebody in my position needs to take very seriously the advice from an expert group. We are putting a lot of detail into the initiative in order to ensure we are able to generate that advice for years to come. Also, to ensure the group can act in a fairly independent way which is necessary.

In terms of the 2020 targets, I am on public record as saying that they were impossible to meet. Given the circumstances in which they were designed, they were very difficult. We, as a country, will have to address the matter. Recently I had three meetings with the outgoing commissioner on the subject of climate change in 2030, from which an agreement was generated, and to state we believed the baseline, by which the 2020 targets were set, was wrong as was the treatment of agriculture. I accept what Deputy Murphy said that we cannot just have some mitigation for one sector. I agree with her that agriculture is a critical sector and that the targets set for Ireland, which are the among the highest for any European country, should not have been set. The targets did not tally. To put it simply, we could not meet our food production targets if we met the 2020 targets. In addition, countries going through economic changes like we were would not have the flexibility to address the matter. These issues were discussed along with cost efficiency, the GDP route of calculation, etc. All of the discussion of these issues with the outgoing commissioner came to fruition because of the new agreement level over the past couple of weeks which the committee is well aware of.

The challenges for 2020 will not go away. We need, through this legislation, the sectoral plans and the framework, to see how we can meet those challenges as much as possible. We really need to look at the far more realistic and longer term period of 2030. Ways to reach our targets for 2030 will be set out subsequently as a result of the agreement reached a couple of weeks ago.

We need to look at a whole range of areas. Obviously, there are the four areas that have already been identified but we need to get into the finer detail regarding what work we need to do on them. That is a challenge across Government. A whole-of-government approach is required. It must be driven by me and I have said to my Government colleagues that we need, as a country, to address this issue as quickly as possible. We must put in place the proper responses across the various sectors in order to address it. No one can be exempt. It will be impossible to achieve the targets unless every sector meets the challenges before it.