Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are setting targets, which is correct and I fully agree with them, but I am trying to understand something. There are targets set out in the Bill. It will have a statutory target of 51% coming from the programme for Government. There are also EU targets under which we have obligations. They are split into two factors. One is an emissions trading system, ETS, and the other is the effort sharing element. Emissions trading is predominantly heavy industry and electricity and the rest involve the other sectors such as agriculture, transport and so on. What I am trying to understand is how the 51% target, however it is decided by the climate council and approved by the Government, will gel with ongoing negotiations as to what our EU responsibility should be under the Fit for 55 target. The EU will develop targets in a different way from the methodology we use to develop them. Do we expect the EU's Fit for 55 package to be reconciled before the climate council sits down to do its work? Will the climate council effectively decide our position for Europe and has that been accepted? I want to understand that process because, as I understand it, there is a lot of toing and froing and there are moving parts. It includes the topic which Deputy Naughten raised. How do we get credit for the sequestration which is possible in the agriculture sector, but not currently counted in the inventory? There are many moving parts, the reconciliation of which will make it either more difficult or easier for us to develop policy.