Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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It depends on the perspective. My perspective is that this can be good for the Irish economy. This is not easy and other countries are not that good either. It is a difficult process. I have a question for the ESB. The Government's package is a good one and this national climate and energy plan structure is right because it says we have to think 30 years in advance. We have to think big and that we will be doing 20 GW of offshore and 5 GW of interconnection. A million homes are going to have to be retrofitted and we are going to have to spend €5 billion on social homes. It is that kind of big thinking. We have to stop thinking about whether we can do just about the minimum so that we can get away with scraping in. To back up what I have been saying, according to Professor John FitzGerald, who is a fair and neutral observer, we are completely off course and heading rapidly in the wrong direction. Between now and Christmas is when we need to turn the entire thinking with a Whitaker-Lemass moment. To be honest, I did not hear or feel it here today. I hope we can work together during the next three months to turn it into an ambition that we then can turn into a reality. There are all sorts of uncertainties, and Mr. Griffin has a tough job, but we should be ambitious.