Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that this agreement is unfortunate and we must ensure it does not happen again, as best we can. I refer to investing in our own country and ensuring that we meet our targets. The Deputy is also absolutely right that the marine planning and development management Bill is critical legislation in that regard, because we have potential in offshore wind to deliver. I think there is agreement across most parties on that, and the outgoing Oireachtas agreed it in the climate action plan. There was a target of 70% renewable electricity, and broad agreement that something like 35 GW of offshore wind could help us to deliver that target. The full 35 GW will probably happen at a later date, but the path to achieving that will allow us to meet the 70% target of renewable electricity.

The Government has three clear legislative priorities. I heard the Taoiseach state this on several occasions and he is correct. We need the climate Bill as the governance structure; we need the Land Development Agency because the housing crisis is a central problem; and the third Bill mentioned as top priority is marine planning and development management legislation. It needs to be in place so that by the end of next year we go to having an auction system for that offshore wind. There will probably be some 2.5 GW of offshore wind in the Irish Sea, and then subsequent options in short order after that development to roll-out that offshore wind aspect.

The planning legislation is critical in this regard so that we can have good environmental planning, manage our agriculture and fisheries and other elements at the same time and ensure that we get certainty, reliability and predictability in bringing costs down. My understanding is the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has responsibility for delivering it. Every effort is being made to publish that legislation early in the new year, as I understand it. The heads of the Bill came to Government a few weeks ago and it is getting top priority from the Office of the Attorney General. I expect the Bill to be ready, therefore, early in the new year.

Moving on to the issue of onshore wind, the Deputy is correct that it will continue to have an important role, particularly because we have a comparative competitive cost advantage. It is a lower cost system. The recent auction where we approved a range of new onshore wind farms, as well as, importantly, solar farms, is critical in this regard. Going on memory, and my officials will correct me, the contract price we struck was approximately €74 per MWh, which is approximately 20% below that of the existing renewable support schemes. I want to see the price come down more. It can and will and should. Onshore wind energy, therefore, has a critical role to play.

There is a limit, however, and that is why we are looking at what is possible offshore. There are planning constraints on that, as we saw recently in Donegal, and we must, therefore, be careful in that regard. I agree with the Deputy, however, that onshore wind has a critical role to play in this area. The development of community ownership of onshore wind is also critical, and we are also looking to promote that element. We did it in the latest auction, and we will do so again. We also want there to be community gain from onshore wind projects, which is stitched into the auction process.

The Deputy is correct that the SEAI was limited in its capacity. Part of our difficulty in the heat sector is that we have not been able to ramp up in both commercial and domestic heat. That is one of the reasons in the recent budget we sought approval for a significant increase of more than 50 new posts for the SEAI. This recognises that we do not face this situation in future. We have seen a massive expansion in the retrofitting budget and the SEAI's management of it. The company is currently filling those places. We have significant plans for next year. We have a budget agreed this year of more than €750 million, most of which is targeted towards local authority housing and the warmer home schemes, where some of the specific backlogs to which the Deputy referred are arising. The scheme is popular, not surprisingly because it is a 100% grant. It gives significant health and comfort benefits as well as benefits to the buildings. It is key.

I agree with the Deputy on the need for a much wider agri-environmental scheme. Again, it started in this budget with an allocation of €70 million to a new environmental scheme. It is well structured in the sense that it will fund a lot of investment in training, soil analysis and scientific preparation for the supports we will need to give to pay farmers for environmental services such as improvements in water quality, storage of carbon and improving biodiversity, as well as food. These nature-based solutions, coming in tandem with the climate solutions, are absolutely critical to where we want to go.

Last but not least, we must pay for new forms of forestry such as closer to nature and continuous cover forestry, which are rich in employment, promote rich biodiversity and have a much longer term timeline but have real benefits in terms of high-quality woods for a range of different uses, including renewable heat which will help us meet future targets. I agree with the Deputy on the need for that. That will be the start of a big scale-up in our ambition.