Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the officials who have joined us again so quickly after the last session. I have five points to make.

First, while I agree it would be helpful to have an information service in relation to climate emissions, every party, bar one, was able to come out and state a position so we did have advice. The Climate Change Advisory Council came before the committee on several occasions and they are there to give advice.

Second, to come back to the point raised by the Minister around transport, I completely agree with him and it is something that often does not get enough coverage in this committee although it is absolutely critical. The emission targets are very high for transport.

There is an issue around local authorities, public bodies and State companies in particular. The way that we have our democracy set up means we can set targets at a national level. Can the Minister tell me how can we and the Department ensure at a local level or, indeed, in public bodes, such as An Bord Pleanála and the National Transport Authority adhere to the climate action plan?

I would like to refer to the point raised by Deputy Whitmore about the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local government. I think that there is a really important remit here for that Department.

My third point concerns LULUCF. It is concerning to all of us that no targets have emerged from the negotiations with the two other Government parties. As there is evidence that there are actions that can be taken that will reduce emissions, to what extent has accountability and transparency been built into the next 18 months, or whatever length of this period, to reduce emissions even if there is no target in place?

It has been highlighted that a lot of the discussion, certainly in the public domain, was around agricultural emissions. The target set for agricultural emissions is 25% reduction and off the back of that the target for electricity or energy was raised, as I understand it from public discourse. The target is now 7GW for offshore renewables and originally it was 5GW. I welcome the increase and all three Government parties agreed to increase that target for energy emissions reduction. How confident is the Minister that we can hit the target? The lower level of agricultural emissions probably did lead to the increase in energy. I do not doubt that it is also very difficult to hit that target of 25% but each area is difficult.

Lastly, I wish to refer to back-up storage, particularly for this winter and next winter. There has been some discussion in the media that there are concerns around the public ownership of back-up storage and I would like to hear the Minister's views on the matter. I believe that public ownership is the only way to go when we are talking about energy security.