Mr. Noel Regan:

On the first point, the Chair is correct that buildings and transport amount to approximately one third of Ireland's emissions. The effort-sharing decision is the piece of legislation that covers targets for buildings, transport and agriculture. Ireland's current target is minus 30% by 2030 and the proposal is a new target of minus 42% by 2030, so that is a considerable increase. The Commission is not proposing to amend the effort-sharing decision to any significant degree. It is one of the smaller files in this package. It is not proposing a major restructuring of that legislation. Essentially, it is proposing the new emissions trading system for buildings and road transport to complement the effort-sharing decision and not to put it aside.

Finally, I do not think it undermines the Climate Act. Clearly the package is very complicated and is likely to change as it is negotiated over the coming years but the Act is clear and crisp about what needs to be done in Ireland, namely, overall carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings. I do not think this package would undermine the Climate Act emissions targets, sectoral ceilings, etc. The Climate Act is very well developed and will work in a clear way. As I mentioned before, in the EU system targets for industry and electricity are on an EU-wide basis where the Climate Act puts them on a national basis and gives Ireland its own clear targets for all sectors.