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

I thank the witnesses for the interesting contributions. Did the CCAC have the need or opportunity to consider how this trajectory will impact Ireland as a small, open trading economy in terms of competitiveness? How do we need to think about that? It comes into sharp perspective when you see the price of gas for us versus in the US versus in Germany. Will there be tensions as we adopt these policies? How will we contend with that?

I was impressed with what Dr. Styles talked about regarding integrated solutions. Many of the changes we will have to undertake can be easily seen as zero-sum games for players in the sector who believe they will lose X or Y, that diesel cars are going or that they will have to cut their herd. It creates all these negative vibes. How do the witnesses structure the thinking about integrated solutions? We work in silos. Agriculture probably has not thought about how forestry in many years' time will be a valuable asset from a national point of view. That does not factor into agricultural policy today and we are losing an opportunity. How do we create the integration mentioned?

I know Ms King has been involved in the NESC. That council had a paper some time ago which impressed me and which referred to the need to talk about this in terms of resilience. It is about how our farm or business can be resilient in ten years' time. That puts this challenge into a perspective that people can get their heads around. They do not want to see their farm being a stranded asset in ten years' time because they did not make the changes today. Apart from using the language of resilience, would the witnesses suggest ways we can create that new insight?