Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank Dr. Torney. I have a few more questions and we might be here for a while but I am conscious of the time. I will be brief. I am conscious everybody is probably hungry.

We have not really talked about the industry piece today. One of the big elephants in the room is cement. Perhaps Professor Ó Gallachóir or Professor Daly might speak on that issue as it is a big chunk of the energy piece. I know the climate action plan leans into the potential for carbon capture and storage. I would like to hear a little bit more about that. As I understand it, the challenges there are perhaps more economic than technical, but our witnesses can tell me whether that is the case.

I want to touch on the importance of transport emissions and getting planning right and this challenge we have. We currently have quite a dispersed settlement pattern in rural Ireland. There has been a significant amount of migration to the country, however. We expect to have about a million more people in the country by 2040 than we had in 2018. We have a question then of where those 1 million people should live and how we should enable their mobility. This is where planning and strategic planning comes in. We have not really gone there but a strong message needs to be sent in respect of the importance of getting and applying a transit-oriented development approach to housing.

Finally, I refer to the system of governance we have in this country. A lot of climate action is channelled through local government.

I am looking at Dr. Torney, who made strong points in this area, as has Professor Caulfield in sessions we have had in the past. Is our local government system set up to channel national policy effectively enough, given that a lot of housing policy goes through local government? Planning is obviously related, as is transport. I suspect that the system is not set up to adequately channel national policy and I would like to hear thoughts on what reforms of local government there might be to help us improve transport and housing in particular. Dr. Heaphy may go ahead.