Mr. Andrew Murphy:

I am not so familiar with Ireland's national planning framework but I will pick up on some of the themes that have been raised around planning, the evidence base and what can be achieved. This is absolutely the case. One example of this is the shift to rail freight.

Ireland has the lowest amount of rail freight in Europe. It is very near the bottom, perhaps after Malta and Cyprus. We should also be evidence driven on how much we can actually shift to rail, particularly in a short period like ten years. Across Europe, we have about 18% of freight transferred by rail. On a good day, we can get maybe 23% of freight transferred by rail. There is not going to be an easy solution to shifting to rail. That is why it is important to drive forward electrification in those sectors which cannot be so easily changed by a switch to public transport or planning changes.

Both the 2019 climate action plan and the programme for Government are either quite weak on the application of freight transport or they pursue some of the wrong solutions, such as using natural gas or using biogas for freight transport. To some extent that is understandable. The technology in this area is moving fast. Just this month, Scania ditched plans for hydrogen-powered trucks and instead is going all out on battery electric vehicles.

When we are talking about this, we need to be clear on what we can achieve through changes in planning, the shift to rail and what needs to be electrified. The pace of electrification needs to be accelerated if we are going to reach that 2030 goal.