Dr. Tadhg O'Mahony:

The Deputy mentioned the results of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's cost-benefit analysis in terms of rail transport. That is a very interesting point. It is absolutely crucial. In Ireland, we are using time horizons of our cost-benefit analysis that are short. We are using discount rates that are very high for a wealthy country. What that means in terms of an actual cost benefit analysis is that it will devalue the benefit of a mitigation project, which is something that improves a situation and reduces emissions, and also devalue the cost of a project such as a road that increases emissions. The way we are applying our system currently is directly biased towards emissions intensive and low sustainability projects because of the way we set up our cost-benefit analysis.