Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Coghlan for that interesting political analysis. Many of my questions have been answered already. I do not think anyone now doubts that climate change is happening notwithstanding the fact that this morning's weather was not that much different to typical Irish weather. If one goes to places such as Africa, one sees that once arable soil is now dust. One thing that is really telling is the shrinking of the lakes. It is frightening to see how much they have shrunk.

To discuss Ireland's situation, which is Mr. Coghlan's purpose in attending today, I wonder if it is a valid comparison when he says our emissions are so much higher per capita than India or China. I appreciate emissions per capitais a good way to measure emissions and changes in emissions over time but I am not sure that it is fair to compare us with countries such as China and India. However, that is neither here nor there.

Mr. MacEvilly's presentation looked at the three strands of policy and so on. Two of the strands were all about money, and I accept that is the case, but we have to acknowledge that we high levels of debt in Ireland. Our heart is in the right place, we do what we can and we will continue to do what we can. I feel that is cross-party and not something just for this Government.

What do the witnesses really expect in terms of mitigation measures? Mr. Coghlan has covered the issue to some extent. Is it realistic that we would get out of fossil fuels by 2050? What is the big ticket item that will replace fossil fuels without a major change in people's psyche, never mind Government policy and so on? What will happen? What level of technological breakthrough do we need to achieve something like that?

On farming, Mr. Coghlan was saying to sign up to the targets and then look for concessions. Is that realistic? We are a special case in the sense that we cannot grow grapes. Even though we might not have a bigger farming sector than many European countries, the reality is we cannot grow grapes. We keep cows. What is the alternative? How can we damage such a big industry yet still be able to contribute to development aid and all the other things required of us? It is a big question.

There is the undoubted role of big powers such as oil development corporations, which certainly are a lot cleverer than the rest of us, and what they will do to try to fool us on and so on. How do we change people's minds? How do we change the minds of Governments. How do we convince people that we have to make that big leap. What is the big leap?