Mr. Robert Watt:

To respond to the Senator's first point, I do not agree with the recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly. I do not know if we are allowed to say that, but I do not agree with the proposal for an independent body. That is a bit of a cop out. It is for the Government and the Oireachtas to decide what decisions will be taken because the decisions have significant implications for society and citizens. The notion of an independent body that will suggest that to an official such as Mr. Derek Moran or to the Minister for Finance that a carbon tax will be €200 by 2030, or whatever, will not work. These involve political decisions that have to be decided by the Oireachtas and the Government in the normal course. This comes to the essence of public policy and politics. I do not agree with the recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly. We already have an independent body the Climate Change Advisory Council which has many good things to say, but this involves having to make difficult decisions. Whether we can change the structures in the system to help us make difficult decisions is something we can do and it comes down to the issue of how we are organised in the system and the relationship between the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the other Departments. I mentioned the difficulty that whereas the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is responsible for the targets, it is not responsible for the levers. How does one have proper structures in Government, Cabinet committees or the structures to ensure that the genuine responsibility is taken here? I think it is about different options. In my statement I set out some options about ascribing target savings to sectors that are responsible for them, for example that one says to the agricultural sector that it must deliver "X" and that transport needs to deliver "Y". The challenge with that approach is that flat rate reductions across each sector, reflecting their contribution does not necessarily reflect the marginal cost of different options. That might be an inefficient way of doing it and might lead to higher costs than we have to incur. We need to look at different ways to ensure the system is galvanised to deliver on this.

It is within the Government and not externally that we need to look at the governance. I do not think an independent body will help. What was the Senator's second question?