Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Donnelly. I really appreciate that contribution and the elaboration on her written statement. As the meeting is confined to a maximum of three hours, I propose that each member be given two minutes to address their questions to the witnesses, in order to ensure all members get an opportunity to pose questions. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will go first and get the ball rolling. I am confident we will have time for a second round. I look forward to this discussion.

I thank the chair and members of the council for the Trojan work they put into proposing these carbon budgets. I know it must have been difficult and a lot of consideration would have had to be given. On behalf of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, I extend deep gratitude to Ms Donnelly and the rest of the council members for that. They have proposed a budget. This is the start of the process of us discussing that and we have a certain period in which to report back to the Oireachtas.

On the profile of the budgets the council has come up with and that 4.8% figure over the first period, many argued at the time it was proposed that it was not ambitious enough or the curve was not steep enough. At the same time, I feel it is an accurate reflection of where we are, the point we are starting from and the years of lack of investment in reaching these targets. At last, we are taking that seriously but we still are where we are. Having a less steep profile in that first period makes sense.

Ms Donnelly mentioned the energy transition and wind being an important part of that. Last week we passed the marine area planning legislation, which is a key tool in ensuring we can go to offshore and floating offshore wind and make those subsequent periods easier.

I move to my specific questions. Ms Donnelly mentioned the importance of microgeneration and microgeneration schemes in the early part. All members of the committee will be aware and supportive of the need to urgently introduce legislation that will facilitate the installing of, for example, solar panels on public buildings such as school buildings. Will Ms Donnelly comment on the importance of microgeneration schemes and of facilitating the installation of solar panels and other microgeneration equipment in reaching the targets and in getting buy-in from the public and communities?

My second question is on land use and forestry. Ms Donnelly's comments there were incredibly concerning. She mentioned that forestry is set to switch from a net sink to a net source. That goes against what we would have imagined would happen. Is that inevitable? With some radical policy change, it is possible we can increase the rate of afforestation such as to see a real impact and keep forestry as a net sink as opposed to switching to a net source? Land use is a net sink in almost every other European nation. Why is that the case and why is Ireland bucking the trend?

On agriculture, the council mentioned the pathway Teagasc talk about in reaching emissions reductions. Will she comment on those pathways, genetics, mixed-species swards and the agri-environment scheme we expect to commence in 2023? Does she feel there is enough there to achieve emissions reductions in agriculture?

Anaerobic digestion is something I bring up regularly and I see it as a key tool in decarbonising agriculture. I appreciate concerns around it. Does Ms Donnelly believe it is important to introduce a policy around anaerobic digestion that will allow a co-op-based approach to decarbonising agriculture where chicken or piggery waste can be brought to an anaerobic digester to produce energy to give renewable energy to communities and leave lower slurry emissions at the end of it? Will she comment on the importance of that?