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

I wish to make one last point to the NESC. Dr. O'Connell stated that he advises the Taoiseach. However, he also occupies a national position and he is looked to for leadership on strategic public policy. I want Dr. O'Connell, like Dr. Devaney earlier, to call out correctly the failings in this report, haul in those agencies and say: "You're not thinking strategically, lads, you've got to change." It is usually lads. If this is an iterative process, which is good in governance terms, the first iteration is that we throw out the transport section. Can we agree on that? We can then start with proper thinking about how we promote walking and cycling. We should start with those two. That is a difficult political thing to do. It has to be top-down as well as bottom-up. Transport requires a top-down approach. We will not get a switch completely, which we should do, towards a car-sharing system if we do not get a direction from the centre saying, "That's what we're going to do." It needs to be in 2022 and not in 2025 that all those car-parking spaces will be for car sharing. We will not need 1 million new electric cars; with 200,000 or 300,000 we could do the job the 1 million were supposed to be doing. I accept that Volkswagen would lose a few bob but so be it, the country would gain. Can we start being strategic? Can NESC start by showing some leadership in that by being honest about the failing in the transport section of the plan?