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

I agree. We cannot rely on offsetting as the way of addressing the bigger problem we have. We do need to reduce our level of travel, going back to "avoid, shift, improve". Even for personal or family reasons, if we are travelling all the time, that is not necessarily family friendly and reducing that travel could have a range of other benefits. The public sector has to meet its target of a 50% reduction in emissions. Post Covid, one of the changes has been the use of online, virtual meetings and that has been of much benefit. Meetings still need to be held in person as well and it is not that we will never fly or have to go abroad, but my view is the more we can reduce that compared with what was the tradition, the better it will be for all concerned, such as politicians and civil servants. It is no fun being on a 6 a.m. flight.