Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We need to look at how we can improve the transport system so that it works, not only on a climate basis but also that we are not all stuck in traffic. It is not only about switching one car for the other. It is about reducing the demand for travel by the likes of remote working and other mechanisms, and not everyone having to drive to Dublin or to move to the big city. For example, our towns being revived would be a way that we could reduce the emissions and reduce the demand for travel.

In regard to hydrogen, there is already hydrogen being used in many industries, but at a small scale. The deployment of it for new and additional sources is starting across Europe. It is at early stages. It is usually on industrial sites, such as refineries and heavy industrial use where they have hydrogen in their fuel mix. That will be in the next two to three years.

The large-scale deployment of hydrogen, and our use of it as a way of storing some of the wind power we have, is towards the end of this decade and, more significantly, into the next decade. This Government has decided to set aside 2 GW of the new power offshore we have for such so-called "power-to-X" solutions as a way of saying we want to be in this new industrial revolution, we want to be good at it and we will do it as we are developing the offshore industry.

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