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

I thank all the members of the council for attending. Like Deputy Whitmore, I also thank them, on behalf of everybody, for the unbelievable work that they have done in getting us to this point. Quite simply, we would not be here without them. They deserve a lot of credit. I also appreciate that they have come here to respond to questions and concerns that we may have or clarifications that we are seeking.

My first question is for Professor Ó Gallachóir or any of the witnesses who wish to respond, because it is quite a general question. One of the criticisms, as soon as the proposed budgets were announced, was the fact that the target for first five-year period is the 4.8% reduction, which increases for the second five-year period. There were some suggestions that this was somewhat of a cop-out or left the heavy lifting for later on. I do not agree with that assessment.

I would like to give the Climate Change Advisory Council an opportunity to back up the rationale and make it as clear as possible as to why there is a smaller reduction in emissions for that first five-year period. I imagine it is down to the fact that technologies are still being developed and that we must do this in a fair and equitable way. That is the first question.

There are so many questions in areas we could delve into around this. I hope to come in for a second round but I hope to hear more about transport and particularly the 42% to 50% range selected for transport. I have often heard the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, describe that as one of the most challenging ranges. I would not mind an assessment of how we are doing on that. Perhaps the rate of change to electric vehicles is not as fast as possible but there is a very notable increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road. I note Dr. Daly's comments that there are just as many, if not more, SUVs entering the market at present. Will the witnesses provide an assessment of how we are doing, particularly with regard to investment in active travel and public transport? A quick comment on that would be great. I will leave it there for now because, as we said, there are so many questions that could be asked.