Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Anytime I have ever promised to hand time back I have made a liar of myself so I will not make that promise now. It is around this time that I make my apologies to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the Ceann Comhairle and the wider staff of Leinster House and thank them very much for how much they enable me. I have added my apologies for the times when I do possibly test people but these things need to be done.

I commend Deputies O'Rourke, Quinlivan, Cronin and Guirke. This Bill is a fine piece of work. I am very glad that we are seeing action from the Government in relation to it. I thank the Minister, Deputy Ryan, for showing up. That shows intent and it is welcome.

I will not disagree with anything that has already been said. A green hydrogen strategy is an absolute necessity. It has to be part of the wider renewable framework and must be part of our getting the work around wind energy correct. It is almost trite to say but we have to recognise that wind energy is something that we can become a super power in. I had to listen to some of the Minister's Government colleagues - they may have all been from a certain political party - who spoke of their economic competence and inferred that we do not have any. They spoke of the wonderful economy they had put in play. They may have left out difficulties including the housing crisis, the cost of childcare and other issues that were impacting on people before this cost-of-living crisis. If the Government is to be real about dealing with the issues that we have, and the over-reliance of foreign direct investment - none of us are taking away from the huge benefit this State has derived from foreign direct investment and from its importance - we have a facility here with renewables, with green hydrogen in particular which is part of the wider solution with wind energy and we really need to make it happen. The public consultation process needs to happen as quickly as possible and we must ensure that there is a proper road map and strategy that can deliver.

There has been great evolution with electric vehicles. A great deal of work has been done on the technology. It may be a considerable time before it can apply to bigger vehicles, particularly buses or haulage, but we will get to that point eventually. Green energy may be a medium-term solution that will work in transport but it has a real part to play. Others have spoken earlier about the electrolysis process by which green hydrogen can be produced particularly using wind energy. It has a huge part to play in relation to storage which will be a vital part of us putting this infrastructure together.

We must make sure we have the grid infrastructure. Considerable work has been done to ensure that we have the framework around planning. There are still pieces of work to be done around some aspects of planning and there are also the wider issues. The Attorney General is still carrying out the review of planning. We all know the difficulties with planning up and down the State. Some of it relates to insufficient resourcing with An Bord Pleanála or the courts. There are things that need to be fixed along with the work that needs to be done specifically on wind energy. I am aware that there will be changes in the coming period. Some of the legislation that the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, also related to that. We need to make sure we dot every i and cross every t and that we can deliver something that works.

It was said earlier that we all know the issues around planning where there has not been sufficient interaction with communities. With better planning projects engagement happens with communities at a very early stage so that there is an element of community buy-in and community pay-back. You will not have the same level of antagonism but it also means the community is involved at a very early stage and we catch those mistakes. Deputy Carthy spoke about the difficulties we are all aware of around onshore wind and we need to make sure we do not have the same difficulty with offshore wind.

Deputy Carthy's comments were fair, particularly on microgeneration. Farmers consistently say that none of the grants for renewables, whether it is solar panels or microgeneration, has been fit for purpose. He is also correct about the false, lazy narrative about farming and farmers. Back when Deputy Carthy was an MEP and I was a councillor, we attended an IFA meeting at Monasterboice and I was taken aback at where a huge number of those farmers wanted to go. They all accepted that we are in a changed world and that things are moving. But as others have said, the only way that we can deliver decarbonisation and emission reductions and the percentage reductions at any time, is if they are provided with a road map. These farmers are people that need to be engaged with. They are only too willing to deliver on many projects and many of them have engaged with these grant processes and used them but they found that none of them was fit for purpose or able to deliver what the farmers wanted and what we and our society need in general. There is an onus on the Government and the Minister to engage at that stakeholder level and sometimes we will get further than it might seem in the public domain where people can get involved in a bit of game-play. Obviously, I myself would never lower myself to that type of politicking but others are not quite as sound as me, as I often tell my wife. She does not necessarily believe me.

This is vital work that is being done, particularly by the team in front of me. I welcome that the Government is running in this direction.

We have an opportunity to make this State, hopefully, eventually a country. Deputy O'Rourke said that if we are really serious from now on, we need to ensure we have an all-Ireland strategy in nearly everything we do. We all know the conversation that is taking place. The time will come when there will be a referendum and constitutional change. We need to ensure we have all the preparations done. Specifically for infrastructure that we will require for a considerable amount of time, we need to deliver the changes that are absolutely necessary. We need to make sure this public consultation happens and that there is Government commitment. I welcome what many have said.

During the pandemic we saw that when action needed to be taken, it was only when the State and states across the Europe took action that we were able to deliver. The State must do the heavy lifting to ensure we can produce a strategy. With green hydrogen or as it relates to the wider idea of renewables and specifically wind energy, we need to ensure that roadmap is put in place while also dealing with the other difficulties, particularly those that Deputy Carthy laid out much more eloquently than I have.

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