Dr. Eimear Cotter:

We certainly flag where there are major issues and where we see major impacts on the environment. Getting into the solutions is not the role of the EPA and sectoral expertise is really required to develop those solutions and ensure they will work.

We fund quite an amount of scientific research and have done for the past 20 years. We fund research across the higher education sector, where many of the solutions and technologies are researched and thought through. We are focused on ensuring that thinking and research is brought forward into the policy system. We enable and support that scientific research rather than carrying it out, particularly on the solutions side, as the Deputy asked.