Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a couple of things on which Professor Barrett might come back to us. It could be a written response; he does not have a respond immediately here. I would appreciate it if he could write to us.

I will take one or two examples from each of the key sectors. In energy, the carbon tax will have an effect on the domestic but on the main power generation side, it is not relevant because it is the emissions trading scheme, ETS, supplies. Even though it has gone up to €20 a tonne in recent months, it is still a fraction of what we need it to be to effect the change. In respect of the ETS, would Professor Barrett support the recommendation that we shut down the peat-fired power stations, although not immediately because we have to look after the workers and ensure they get new employment in retrofitting and elsewhere, and that we do not wait another 20 or 30 years to shut them down? I disagree with the UCC analysis that biomass is going to have any future purpose in power generation, other than in very specific limited cases. Would Professor Barrett recommend, if he was giving policy advice, that we shut down the peat-fired power stations in a radically different timeline to the one being recommended, namely, 2031?