Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I suspect a conspiracy. That is all right. The Minister will attend a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications tomorrow, where I will surely raise the matter of broadband. I thank him for his time.

Much has been covered. I have some comments on the process here, the carbon budgets as they relate to sectoral ceilings, and the committee's role in that. I am conscious that if we take the low end of the carbon budget ranges in the climate action plan, we do not meet the 51% target. Will the Minister comment on that?

I went to the launch of the national dialogue. I hope he will agree that this is an iterative approach. We are in a rush. My understanding is that these documents are nearly always in draft form and changing. Engagement needs to be the cornerstone of this. I hope he will test it with regard to not just how many we have engaged with but also who we have not heard from. That question needs to be asked constantly. The bar is high. Maybe it is unattainable but we should strive towards it.

Regarding offshore wind, there is concern in certain quarters that there is not sufficient ambition and that there is opportunity to do more over the period, especially for floating offshore wind. I would be interested in the Minister's perspective. One of the national newspapers published an article last week. Britain is using that technology. Should we use the same?

There is a need to front-load ambition to connect rural Ireland. I have a final question about overall funding. I hear what the Minister has to say about retrofitting. There is a spectacular challenge. The private sector might get us some of the way. We need to generate a demand that is not there yet. Coming out of COP26, are green bonds or other international instruments being considered?