Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Health is missing. Its policies very much intersect with a number of these climate policies. I ask all the witnesses, when replying, to talk about the public duty in respect of equality and human rights and how that intersects with their work on climate change.

Regarding the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Ms Hanlon gave some detail in her presentation but sustainable transport is being bundled. We hear about active travel. I met her at a meeting of a different sectoral committee a week ago. Can we start separating public transport, walking and cycling? I want to talk about each of those because this committee has specific targets for cycling. Public transport needs its own conversation. We talk about one kind of vehicle - electric vehicles - at great length but I am concerned that the other areas get bundled together. I ask that we separate the ambition and standards in terms of each of them.

Will the national cycling planning framework be renewed next year? Will it be more ambitious than in the past?

Regarding rail freight, Ms Hanlon mentioned the doubling of the capacity of the rail fleet in Dublin, which is a positive development. We went through a process recently where everybody had to fight to maintain the stop at the station in their town, and we are considering streamlining those stops. How did we reverse from a position whereby people are having to justify the existence of a railway station, and a service to that railway station? The Department is not seeing which commuters make a better case but it is actively seeking and promoting new rail users. It is a reversal of the conversation we have had where people have had to fight for a service. How do we flip that narrative?

The issue of schools was mentioned at great length in terms of walking, cycling and school safety. Has anything happened since the meeting of the other committee last week? I have been thinking about it since then and have ideas on it. What strategies specifically relate to younger people, older people and women cycling? Those are the major inequalities. Ireland has seen a situation develop whereby we are becoming less diverse in terms of cycling. There has been a 90% reduction in the number of girls cycling to school. That question is also for the Department of Finance. We are talking about tax relief, which is fine for commuters and people in particular work, but what initiatives in terms of tax measures, tax credits or a family tax credit incentivise pensioners or children to cycle?

I ask Mr. Kenny to comment on the fact that the Department of Finance has proposed a tax relief for road hauliers in respect of diesel. It was put in the context of Brexit but it seems contra-indicated with everything else that we are discussing and trying to push towards.

I refer to the biofuels obligation. It is now very clear from the European Court of Auditors and elsewhere that much of used cooking oil is palm oil or is highly diluted with palm oil. Do we intend to move away from double counting whereby used cooking oil is given preferential treatment in that one will get double the credit on used cooking oil, given that it is one of the most compromised and the major fraud scandals?

I accept that we need to be very careful regarding land use but there are ways we can do that, which relate to quality of criteria. For example, we can be much more careful, not as was done in terms of used cooking oil, in ensuring that it is a change in land usage and that it is ancillary. What measures are in place to try to ensure sustainable, appropriate, ethical sources in this area? An issue mentioned by Senator Devine was rewetted bogs that are not fully restored having potential in terms of crops.