Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amendment calls for the complete removal of the ex officiomembers from the expert advisory council. I believe that such a course of action would be wholly misguided in that it would rob the council of valuable insights into the realities and practicalities of policy implementation in Ireland.

We are all in favour of robust mitigation policy measures being developed and implemented in a timely fashion. The expert advisory council is there to provide advice in this regard. It would be strange, therefore, if the council itself did not have at its disposal, as full members, experts in policy implementation. In addition, the four relevant organisations – the EPA, the SEAI, Teagasc and the ESRI – have a wealth of talent and infrastructure behind them to lend assistance to the council, as and when required, particularly where relevant research is concerned. Foregoing this support around the main table would do a disservice to the requirements and demands of the low carbon transition agenda challenge that we all face. For those reasons, I cannot support this amendment.

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