Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I echo the concerns of my colleagues. The sense I am getting is that we have a 2030 target but it is clear that climate change is here. We are seeing the impact of it now and the urgency is not there to deal with this issue and do the things we can do immediately. I understand that Dr. Richard's role and what he is doing is to conduct research and get all the scientific data in place. I wonder whether in this instance, perfection is the enemy of the good and whether a precautionary approach to this would be a much better approach. If we know what we can do that will improve and have not only a climate mitigation but a climate adaptation and biodiversity impact, we should be doing it even if we do not have the absolute emissions and data. We could try it for a year or two. I was a scientist in a previous life and sometimes as scientists we can get very much into the detail and want to have the perfect figures in place but we need to be moving on this. What is Dr. Richard's opinion on things that can be done with the data he has at the moment to begin working with farms or that would allow the Government to start implementing things? The other thing that really strikes me is that things will be more complicated when we are dealing with private land and ownership, as there are stakeholders involved and other things to take into consideration. However, the State is the single largest landowner in the country. What can it be doing on its own land? Bord na Móna is doing some rewetting and restoration work but my understanding is that this is on only half of the landmass it uses. Is it more appropriate at this stage to rewet and restore all of the State's land that is peatland-based? This would have an impact from both a climate perspective and a biodiversity perspective, which has been missing from the discussion this morning but which is equally as important. Should the State be driving a lot more of it with the land it currently owns? Those are my two questions.