Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This proposed amendment calls for the shortening in the timeframe for the expert advisory council to conduct its first periodic review from 18 months after establishment to six months. The first periodic review will, of course, be an important one, in that it is specifically charged with analysing the progress made in meeting our mitigation targets up to the year 2020 under the EU’s effort sharing decision of 2009. Of course, I understand why some would wish to see this timeframe shortened but I believe that we also have to be realistic in what we can expect of the council.

The council is not a full-time entity, although it will have at its disposal a secretariat to be provided by the Environmental Protection Agency. Moreover, it will require a certain amount of time to bed down the operational structures of the council and then to begin its work of collating and analysing all available relevant information and data. I do not think it is reasonable to expect the council to do all this, and turn around a major review of mitigation policy and implementation in Ireland, within just six months.

We all want the first periodic review report to be a substantive and challenging piece of work, and to genuinely add value to the work being undertaken by the State’s institutions in achieving progress on mitigation. We must, therefore, afford the council a reasonable period of time to do its job effectively and efficiently, and it is important to note in this respect that 18 months is a maximum timeline which allows flexibility in terms of successfully completing the first periodic review.

I am afraid that six months is too short a timeframe to make a notable contribution in this regard. Accordingly, I cannot support this amendment.

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