Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said that we have to be realistic, which is true. In the real world, Ireland is not on track to reach its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. We are committed to a non-emissions trading sectors reduction of 20% between 2005 and 2020. It is widely established that we are going to be well wide of the mark for this. It is reckoned that we will only achieve a decrease of about 3% by 2020. If we provide for an 18-month period we are talking about the middle of 2017, two and a half years away from that end target. It is way too near to be able to take stock of where we are at.

Deputy Wallace is correct. Given the capabilities of some of the personnel on the expert advisory council and the importance of its task, nobody is going to shoot them if they do not produce a biblical version of the council's findings but they should be able to produce a comprehensive body of work. This has been in gestation for some time now. They are not starting from zero, yet we are starting from miles behind where we should be. In that context, six months is a far more realistic and important barometer than 18 months.

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