Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and the Minister for coming before the committee, for his opening statement and answers to questions thus far. I had a technical problem in my office, so I came down to the committee room. It is better to do this in person, anyway. I have a couple of areas that I wish to cover with the Minister.

First, public transport projects are an area that Senator McGahon and the Minister referenced. I will be quite parochial on behalf of North Dublin by specifically referencing, as the Minister has, the importance of the metro. I refer to the constraints that both the planning system and elements of the NDP have shown thus far as a result of the perceived delays in the planning process, the resources available to our planning authorities, both at local and national levels, and the impacts that has on the NDP and our climate action targets, which are interlinked. Can the Minister offer a view as to how the NDP and its implementation can be improved?

The Minister referenced the review and a number of other factors from his Department's perspective which I think would be useful to flesh out further, and from my point of view, trying to learn from the process we have been in for the past number of years on a number of projects and around those delays and the impacts they have on our climate action targets.

I am pleased the Minister touched on the low-cost loan scheme for the national retrofit plan. We cannot wait for it to be introduced, to be honest. The appetite among homeowners to invest in, and decarbonise, their properties and residencies has been phenomenal. I pay tribute to SEAI and all the various contributors to that process. However, around the grants scheme that the SEAI offer, which is interlinked to that national retrofit plan, does the Minister believe there are additional steps that can be taken?

The Cathaoirleach rightly touch on balanced regional development and how important it is and I absolutely agree. As someone from north Dublin, I am fortunate to have mass public transport via train. Of course, there is an ambitious plan to not only electrify the network within a reasonable period, but also to roll out 750 electric or battery-electric carriages across the network within the next decade. On the point the Minister made just before I was called to speak around decarbonising our transport systems, does he believe, as a former Minister for Finance and current Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, that this proposal or plan is ambitious enough in terms of our ambitions for climate action and a reduction of our carbon emissions?

I have a few other questions, but I may come back to them on the next round.