Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their comments. On the issue of the bogs, I assure Deputy Stanley that we will look into that. On the issue of the Doha Amendment ratification, I would point out to Deputy Murphy that we are one of the first countries to engage in the ratification process. We are one of the early movers, which sends a signal out to the rest of the community. If we benchmark ourselves against other countries in that regard, this is a positive development.

As part of the debate on the legislation we can have another look at the 24-month provision, which is not necessarily something that is locked in. We can have a detailed discussion on that matter. On the expert group, we are very close to a conclusion in terms of its composition and then it will be a matter of bringing people together. I believe it is important to include international expertise in the group. I am certainly determined to close it off as quickly as possible. I appreciate Deputy Murphy's comments about that fact that I am barely in the door but I certainly want to close it off.

On the issue of sectoral plans, I would not like the committee to think that there is no work going on in this area across Government Departments. There is a lot of work going on in this space. I have spent a lot of time discussing the sectoral plans with various Departments. I was quite aware of this work in my previous role, when I was responsible for sustainable transport. We made quite a significant amount of progress on issues such as the electrification of cars although we need to move that on to the next phase, to be honest, now that the basic infrastructure is in place. We were trying to develop sustainable transport options in an environment where capital spending was far more limited than in the recent past. We were trying to move things along in the context of very limited capital. That is just one example of the work being done on a sectoral level. Plans are also afoot in the area of retrofitting homes and for other aspects of the built environment. There are also serious plans being developed in the area of electricity generation. I do not want members to believe that there is no serious work going on in these areas. There is a lot of work going on and we will see the fruits of that work. The first critical thing we must do, though, is get the legislation published and enacted. I welcome the fact that the Deputies who have spoken are positive about that requirement and I look forward to their positive contributions to the forthcoming debate on the legislation.