Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is right that there is a real challenge and no-one should underestimate the fact those emissions increased in 2021. We do not know the figures for last year yet but my expectation is they will not be significantly different. That makes it all the more challenging in the remaining years to 2025. Within the annexe functions, each Minister with responsibility will have key performance indicators they will have to meet, to answer the Senator's first question. To answer her last one, within this law if we are off track - and each Minister with responsibility will have to come to this committee more than anyone else to account for this - it is the requirement for those responsible Departments to come up with policy measures that start to put us back on track.

I will share a number of examples that can deliver some immediate reductions. Most are in my area, but not exclusively so. I am not sure if the Senator heard my answer to an earlier question, but we are in the process of setting up six task forces that pull all the elements of Government together, namely, different Departments, agencies and outside expertise, to deal with offshore wind, sustainable mobility, heating our buildings, just transition, climate communications and a land use review. What we are saying on those is absolutely fixated on asking what can be delivered by 2025? We do not think beyond 2025; it is about what can we deliver in the next three years. In that, on the transport side, it is the 35 pathfinder projects. All of them must be delivered by the end of 2025. If a council cannot deliver them by the end of 2025 we will reallocate to another council. I will give an example-----