Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The December document is a requirement of the European Union. We have to produce a draft energy and climate policy in December 2018 and a completed policy in December 2019. There is a one year window between the draft and the completion of the policy. I am working to a similar deadline to the Deputy and aim to have a whole-of-Government policy in place by February. What we submit to the EU in the next couple of weeks will contain many of the elements we know about, including initiatives in the national development plan, the national mitigation plan and other initiatives already in place. Much of what we already know of will be included in that, but there are areas we have to push further on where we do not have established consensus on, and that is the work I have to do between now and next September. Hopefully, there will be a degree of cross-party support for some of the initiatives.

That is my understanding. The last word is not what goes in to the EU in December, nor does it regard it as the last word. It regards it as a draft.