Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

With all due respect to the Minister, the EPA report did not say that we need to speed up and ramp up, which we obviously do. What it said is that the Government's policies are not enough to meet our 51% target. The Minister is correct that there were certain areas where sufficient data was not provided in the climate action plan for the EPA to undertake their analysis. In itself, that is a huge flaw. If a State entity that is there to oversee what is happening is not being provided with enough information through the climate action plan to actually do its modelling, then surely the plan is not meeting its needs. It is not detailed enough for the EPA to make an assessment.

There are areas that need to be revised. As the Minister stated, the diversification element is one of them. He also stated that if all of that was spelled out properly, we would meet 42%. However, that is still well short of the 51% target that is required in legislation. Will the Minister immediately revisit the climate action plan? It is not due until December, so will he do that now and put in the details that are required for those areas that were not specific enough, as well as any additional measures that need to be taken?

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