Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am certain that the massive civilisational challenge that we face with regard to climate will feature in what the ESRI has done but it was asked to do this work by the Government earlier in the year with a view to providing an input to decisions that we will make in the NDP within this year. The Deputy made a point about the lack of transformative projects. I would contend that the work now under way in renewable energy and particularly on offshore renewable energy does have the potential to be transformative for our country. Other decisions we have made, for example on the roll-out of the national broadband plan has the ability to be transformative in the medium term and to have a very positive effect on our ability to deal with some aspects of carbon emissions by giving some workers the ability to work either at or closer to home.

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