Deputy Richard Bruton:

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. I spent 18 months in the Department and enjoyed the work there. It is crucially important to the future of this country. The Minister is well suited to the task. I hope the framework that we sought to put in place over the past couple of years with the climate action plan, the implementation board and the draft climate Bill has laid a foundation for the work he is undertaking. I welcome the enhanced ambition at 51%, which is going to represent a significant change in the coming decade.

On the 55% decision made by the European Council to reduce Bonn 1990 levels by 55%, at what point will it become clear what Ireland's contribution will be? What progress has been made in the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auctions, particularly the community pot? This will be important in building community support over time to the switch to renewables. How is that going and will we see further development in that area?

On the offshore issue, it will present a real opportunity for Ireland in the long term. Will the State commit in the new economic plan to putting in the platform infrastructure required to see this take off rather than rely on individual commercial operators bringing renewables ashore one by one?

When does the Minister plan to bring forward the national energy plan, an obligation we have to the EU, and the next climate action plan? These would give this committee an opportunity to move on from the legislative framework, which is extremely important, to the practical policy initiatives that we now need to be socialising to achieve the targets we are setting for 2030?