Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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First, on the just transition commission, I was very pleased that the task force, chaired very ably, has delivered a recommendation for Government which we will now implement, initially on a standing basis but with further legislation to come to give it legislative strength. The fact that each of the social partners - business, unions, NGOs, environmental NGOs, farming groups and social justice groups - were centrally involved gives it real strength. The report it did and the recommendations it made for how we approach the future of the just transition commission are very solid and I will spend a lot of my time this autumn implementing them and making sure the legislative process is delivered.

The costs for that are included in subhead A7. There is about €0.5 million included for just transition initiatives, which also includes a number of other research projects, such as an ex poste evaluation of the just transition fund in the midlands region to see how it has worked and support for the National Economic and Social Council, which has done really extensive work in terms of thinking about how we define this whole issue of just transition and how we deliver it. The answer to the Deputy's question is that it is progressing. Kieran Mulvey has said the group has finished its work and we now go to the implementation phase, initially on a non-statutory basis, but with a view to putting in place the legislation the task force has suggested.

With regard to the land use review, I had a very useful meeting last week with Geraldine Tallon, who is chairing the overall work, and with Dr. Rory O'Donnell, formerly of NESC. Dr. O'Donnell and Professor Mark Scott are chairing the two subgroups looking at the scientific aspects of this. Dr. O'Donnell is looking also at how we get broader buy-in and engagement.

Deputy Bruton is correct that the science here keeps changing. We know that the issue of our forestry being the source of emissions rather than the sink emissions was much larger than we thought and that made the land use issue all the more significant. On a better note, we found that some of the Teagasc research, showing that the level of drained land was less than had been originally projected seems to be bearing out to be true and that has improved our emissions profile. We are going to continue to have to deal with land use, but in a slightly different way.

The land use review is due to provide to Government some very significant further research in the October period, which will allow us to assess what we do next. I have just come from a Cabinet meeting, at which we agreed our long-term strategy on climate change and land use is central in that. We all know agriculture is not going to go to zero emissions on its own. There will still be cattle and sheep and other emissions coming from agriculture. The secret will be in storing a lot of carbon through rewetting of bogs and through significant extension of forestry. We are aiming to go from 11% to 18% forestation cover by 2050. That on its own will store some 5 million tonnes of carbon and in that, the land use review has to help us in not telling an individual landowner what they have to do but telling us what sort of incentives we need in place to get the land use in rewetting, bogland rehabilitation as well as forestation and good grassland management. That land use review is progressing.

It is one of six task forces that I set up to deliver on our climate ambitions. A number of others have been set up since as the model is working so well. However, the land use one is probably the most challenging issue. It is the one that needs to make the most progress and involves, critically, other Departments like the Department of agriculture and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

All these task forces are designed to get people outside of silos. This will continue, I think, to provide very useful information, and it is very much part of an iterative process because, as the Deputy said, the science keeps changing when it comes to land use emissions.