Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the guests for coming in today. Their contributions have been interesting. This has been the reality check that we need, and it has given us a great deal to digest over the coming weeks. Much of what has been said today echoes concerns I have that not enough is being done up front, with the result that we are backloading the targets. I have specific concerns about our ability to implement the required measures. We are good at setting targets, but we are not so good at enacting the policies to enable us to meet those targets. How we have failed to meet the 2019 cap has demonstrated that. It has been the same with the targets set in the last year for retrofitting, heat pumps, electric vehicle infrastructure, apprenticeships and everything of this kind across the entire gamut in this regard. I do not think the Government has met one target yet. Indeed, I think it was Professor McMullin who mentioned that the reductions do not even meet the 7% target specified in the programme for Government. It is actually 6%. There is a real risk therefore that we could wake up in 2025 and realise that not enough is being done and that it is not being done quickly enough for us to ever attain the targets for 2030.

Returning to the differential between the 4.8% and the 8.3% targets for reductions, for the sake of simplicity, and assuming agreement with the overall target of 51%, which I know there is not, will the witnesses tell us how they would divvy up that percentage? Would they have it at 7.6% to meet the Paris Agreement commitments, or at 8.3% for the first five years and then 4.3% later? What figures would they recommend adopting? When this topic was raised yesterday, what Professor Ó Gallachóir said regarding this split was that he challenged anyone to come up with a way that it would be possible to meet higher targets in the first period. I put that challenge now to the witnesses. If they could do one thing to meet these targets, what would that be?