Ms Michelle Murphy:

We are supportive of the budgets, challenging as they are. As representatives from the Irish Environment Network pointed out, those budgets are not even enough to get us to our 2050 target. There will be two key elements: first, investment to provide the alternatives, infrastructure and supports that communities, workers, regions and individuals will need and, second, the planning and social dialogue that has been committed to in the climate action plan, for which there should be consensus among all sectors that it is well governed and well evaluated. That social dialogue needs to move down from a national to a regional and local level to ensure there is planning and full buy-in from every sector. People, sectors, workers and communities should know what to expect, know what infrastructure is required, know when it will be delivered and know what kind of alternatives will be available to them. It will be very challenging to meet the targets set out in the budgets without that planning.