Ms Marie Donnelly:

The simple answer is that by 2039, we not only can, but must match our energy demands with sustainable electricity. We have a constraint and it may be challenging to get 5 GW of offshore wind in place between now and 2030 but it should be achievable in the early part of the next decade. As we continue to roll out both onshore wind and solar, and microgeneration of solar, we will be able to match our energy demand with sustainable electricity, certainly by 2039. The key issue in this context is the sector in which emission reduction is the most challenging and that is the transport sector. We have mechanisms in place to substitute quite effectively fossils fuels in our heat demand, be it at home or in many parts of industry. The real challenge we are facing is in the area of transport, where we have a very high share of our privately owned fossil fuel vehicles and these are giving emissions coming from petrol or diesel. That is one of the reasons, and the Deputy may have heard the council recently coming out with a chapter on transport, we are really looking for out-of-the-box ideas for the transition of our transport system into low- or zero-emission possibilities. That is why we wanted to have the opportunity for lower-income households, particularly those who are removed from public transport options, to have additional supports so that they could buy EVs and not just reduce emissions, which we are concerned with, but more importantly reduce their annual cost of operating their transport by as much as €1,500 a year. That is what we are looking at. There are mechanisms and there are stages that can be taken. We have provisions, as the committee will know, at European level for zero-emission vehicles to be put on the market from 2035. That means our fossil fuel fleet will be out of date by then and we will have to do something. Our recommendation is to start moving people into low- and zero-emissions transport possibilities now so that they can get the benefit from now and not wait into the middle of the next decade.