Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That is the logic behind the carbon border adjustment mechanism. Ultimately, this NECP goes through a European Union process where it is collectivised. It will go to Belém in Brazil next year, where we have to update the national determined contribution. That is where we will know whether we are serious about climate, globally. The global stocktake shows we are not on track globally and that we require much more significant, higher ambition. It includes all 200 countries. No one has an out. One of the key issues is whether they will arrive with serious NDCs. If they do, that answers the question because we know every country is going to have to meet the same sort of obligations and targets. There is no one getting an out.

On the issue of planning, I hear the Deputy's point about excessive public consultation, if such a thing is possible. It probably is not. Public consultation is the most important thing in this transition. We bring people with us, we listen to criticisms and adjust accordingly. However, there is an issue with the level of consultation. I will take this NECP as an example. We went out to public consultation earlier this year on the earlier draft. We only got about 40 applications. Given the seriousness and significance of the document, we would want higher involvement in it. The problem is that we have so many consultation processes in train on the climate action plan, on EV charging and on a whole variety of issues. We have to think about how we make the consultation processes really efficient for everyone, including the people taking part, in order that they are easy to understand. What we are proposing to do here with the online seminars - offering an interactive consultation process - is a really important innovation. The timeline is very tight. The first request when we go out to consultation will be for a longer consultation period.