Mr. Noel Regan:

Exactly. In terms of the Deputy's second question as to whether the ETS has been a success, the current target is a 41% emissions reduction and the Commission's own impact assessment states that it expects to exceed that without further intervention. It will say absolutely it has been successful. In fairness, it has been complemented by a renewables target which has been particularly successful in increasing renewables but the ETS has certainly played a role. At a high carbon price, we will switch coal to gas which can reduce emissions.

The Commission essentially is saying that a price signal is needed to complement the transport and buildings sector and that, in the absence of it, the existing policies are not working. It has said - it is the case in Ireland too - decarbonising transport and buildings is difficult. Buildings offers many cost-competitive ways to decarbonise, but in the absence of a price signal, that can be quite difficult.

The Innovation Fund is a feature of the ETS. Basically, money goes to large industry to innovate and decarbonise large factories etc. That is a key part of the proposal. To date, most of the emissions reductions in the ETS have been in the electricity sector. Industry is more challenging. They have the Innovation Fund, which they will increase funds to. Recently, the Commission announced Aughinish Alumina has been successful in an application for that very fund.