Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Discussion (Resumed)

2:00 pm

Photo of Tom NevilleTom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I was caught up in another committee. I have just a few pointers. I was part of the delegation that met the Tipperary Energy Agency. I found the trip extremely educational. I do not have an environmental or climate background but I have an interest in the area. As Deputy Sherlock said, we need to look at this more and consider rolling it out more across the councils or local government. We have a blueprint there. The grassroots or people on the ground and local government are mentioned in the briefing we got today. This would be my emphasis, given my background in local government. However, the biggest reservation I have about all this and whatever decision we will make in January will be how it will be communicated and how we will implement it on the ground. We must get that right, and I am talking as a collective. I could be very political here if I wanted to be but I will remove the politics from this. If whatever agreement we put in place is to work, our communication strategy will be vital. I stress that if we do not communicate it properly and we lose the ground on it, we will set ourselves back further. I would stress to whoever will be the communications lead on this that that should be front and centre. It is all very fine putting out a good solution together, but if we cannot implement it or if people on the ground do not buy into it, we will be setting ourselves back. We have plenty of experience of this down through the years where we have got it wrong. I very much agree with the Minister that we must be ambitious but also realistic. I am not a climate denier. We know what is happening and we know it is out there but, as I said, it all goes back to how this will interact with human nature and on the ground and how people will buy into it.

Some work on this has been done in other committees. Specifically, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has done a report on climate change. I do not want to come in with one big sweeping stick and make these massive changes that, again, will not work or be able to be implemented on the ground and which people will not buy into. This goes back to the kernel of agriculture. I represent a rural, agricultural community. This is on the minds of the people I represent. Farmers are talking about it because they understand that issues are coming down the tracks, it has been spoken about on the airwaves and it is becoming more politically mainstream. We must be mindful of this and take on board what the agriculture industry is coming back to us with because that is a huge part of who we are and our economy. It is our natural resource.

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