Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As a former Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I know that it will be about having an enormous pot of money, if we are to make these transitions. We are going to have to change the national development plan to ensure the enormous sums we are going to spend in the capital plan will be lockstep with our ambitions to reduce carbon, which we must acknowledge.

My questions are simple. Does the Minister accept that we have now an opportunity at local government level to lead on this and to try out new technologies, and at the same time to implement Just Transition, in order that we are retrofitting and eliminating fuel poverty? That has to go hand in hand also.

Will the Government be ambitious with local government in the document and set the sort of targets for 2030 of net carbon neutrality I have suggested? Does the Minister support and will he set up a Just Transition task force? Will he join me in welcoming which was for some the surprise announcement by IBEC that it has embraced the all-party climate action report? If industry is willing to put its shoulder to this objective, surely we should lead in the public sector by example.

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