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

I very much welcome Professor FitzGerald's statement at the outset that we, as the Oireachtas representing all parties here and Independents, have a role in that. Our committee has a role in that our remit is to inform and open up consultation on this new European national energy and climate action plan, which I understand is the definitive plan. Everyone here is guessing in terms of what the future holds, but will he outline his thinking on the direction we are going in for 2050?

On that, the National Economic and Social Council, NESC did a good job on it and set a much more ambitious target than did the Government by recommending we decarbonise 100% by 2050.

There are examples such as New Zealand where interesting work has been done in planning for this. One can even look at an example from as recently as last week where California, the fifth largest economy in the world, has gone way beyond the Government in saying it will have a 100% renewable and 100% decarbonised energy system by 2045. While I have not read the full text, the targets may be even wider than that. Does the council have the resources and modelling capacity, or does the EPA have the modelling capacity, to do some of that work for presentation to us in aid of the public policy process in circumstances in which we are required to have a first draft by Christmas? It does not exist now. We do not have it anywhere from the Government.