Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I read through the presentation, the two terms that came out for me were "coherence" and "political leadership". In a broader context, Professor Ó Gallachóir said in his presentation that the MaREI Centre has introduced some successful policy measures. If he had to pick one area to advance to get the policies behind the MaREI Centre, which on has been the most progressive and successful to date? I take into consideration that we are all conscious of the fact we are playing catch-up and we are coming to the table way too late on this, which is unfortunate but cannot be denied. With that in mind, there is also the danger of not getting the maximum from our inputs and efforts in that there may be a knee-jerk reaction whereby we start spending money foolishly. From his research, what technological advancements does Professor Ó Gallachóir foresee? Would we be well advised, without sounding like we are shirking the issue, to take a step back and look at where technology will be in two, five or ten years time and plan towards that target, rather than everybody losing the run of themselves, if the professor knows where I am coming from? What technological advances does he foresee?

I was at a meeting this morning at which we discussed heavy haulage, air transport and so on. This is going to take a long time and our best way of making progress will be the mixing of biofuels with fossil fuels. We can achieve fantastic results but the bottom line is that, for the foreseeable future, there will not be a day when we are not burning fossil fuels in heavy vehicles. Our best approach is that there is a mixture with biofuels. With that in mind, what is Professor Ó Gallachóir's view on proposals with regard to exploration in Irish seas for gas and oil? We are going to need a combination and there is also the potential benefit of CCS, which was mentioned earlier, so it is not all negative when it comes to taking fuel from the ground.

We get many different opinions on tax versus incentivisation and we have talked about carbon tax. In the broader spectrum of the Irish public, what one incentivisation scheme would Professor Ó Gallachóir think is the most advantageous? If he had a pot of money to try to progress this project, what way of spending it would give the best value in terms of incentivising communities to buy in?