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

I wish this leadership team well in steering what is a massive transformation of their sectors. In many cases they will have to lean heavily against established practices. They are taking on a really important national endeavour, and I wish them well.

My questions are directed to the two framework Departments, namely, the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Taoiseach. First, has the fact that we now have legally binding targets changed the nature of the Departments' approach, which up to now has been best endeavour, and many would say poor endeavour? Will there be sanctions, trade-offs, rations and big bets driven from the central Departments?

My second question is whether the Departments plan to have a central think tank to develop policy tools. From where I am sitting, there do not seem to be proper policy tools for forestry, rewetting, methane management, SUV reduction or the retrofitting wave. I could probably go on. We do not even have education Departments investing to match housing developments in a timely manner. Is there an approach beyond co-ordination and sitting at senior officials' group meetings to have a central brain that will drive the new policy tools?

Third, what are the criteria for weighing the essential trade-offs between the sectors? We have seen in the past things like marginal abatement costs but, clearly, those leave out the social disruption that policies could carry. How will that be done? Is it a matter of horse-trading between the central Departments and the line Departments or is a metric being applied?

Finally, the issue of social consensus came up. How do the Departments intend getting community buy-in and social consensus on both the change and the policy tools? We already see a lot of resistance to policy tools such as carbon pricing, road pricing, planning acceleration, etc.