Dr. John Curtis:

Members are probably familiar with the low-carbon roadmap published by what was the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. We were involved with colleagues at University College Cork in the analysis relating to that roadmap in the context of achieving targets to 2030 and 2050 and what types of energy will be used. The analysis in question refers to switching to more renewables and that type of thing. Part of it refers to what level of carbon taxation would be required to drive those targets in the future. I do not remember the numbers off the top of my head but they are substantially higher than the current €20 a tonne. That is a burden on the people having to pay it but when we run that analysis through models relating to the economic impact, what we find is that if this taxation revenue is recycled by reducing other types of taxation, such as taxation on labour, the net impact on the economy is minimal. As Deputy Dooley stated, there is much work to be done in the context of investing in the future by means of retrofits, etc. That future, however, is not going to be detrimental to the economy.