Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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We support the EU move to achieve a 2050 reduction but we need to evaluate what that will mean for Ireland and whether we can also commit at a national level to a similar reduction. That work will be done over the remainder of the year but we are joining the coalition to see this ambition set.

We must consider the technology that we can be reasonably sure about, and we do not have that level of foresight to envisage these changes. The measures that will help in that later journey are not all economic at this point, whether it be carbon capture, carbon reduction, fossil fuel alternatives to back-up our electricity grid and so on. We have started with the 2030 target, which is a legal obligation, but we are way off course. The latest figures from the EU suggest that we are running at close to 20% off course and, therefore, we will not deliver anything close to the target. We have sought to get ourselves on course for 2030 but consistent with net zero emissions in 2050. Where there is a stand-out indication that we should adopt a technology early based on reasonable knowledge of its direction, we are including it in the early phase but where that is yet to be there, we are not bringing forward those. While it is cheaper the sooner one acts, that is not true for every action. There are plenty of very expensive actions but if one sought to do them now before the technology had evolved, they would prove very expensive. One must judiciously choose the pathway based on the information available. We got help to identity the direction of travel of the technologies and that is why there is a greater emphasis in the plan on electric vehicles. There is strong confidence that the technology will quite quickly reach a tipping point for the adoption of electric vehicles. There is an imperfect knowledge of the future that one must weigh against acting in an early basis.