Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals

Photo of Réada CroninRéada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for their presentation. I have a bit of a problem with using hydrogen on its own. We should be more specific about bringing in hydrogen. I was delighted to introduce a Bill on green hydrogen strategy a couple of weeks ago with Sinn Féin's climate spokesperson, Deputy Darren O'Rourke. We are really going to need a key fuel source if we are going to meet our commitments under the Paris Agreement. Green hydrogen has really good potential not just for heating homes but also for transport. I am a Deputy for North Kildare, which has turned into something of a logistics hub for heavy goods vehicles. Electricity is not going to be able to meet that. We are on the western edge of Europe. We have an abundance of offshore wind and we are ready to harness that potential. Despite the millions spent on consultants and advisors, Ireland does not even have a green hydrogen strategy. Scotland had one in 2015 and the European Commission had one in 2020. We cannot just depend on the private sector to be able to meet our climate targets. Do the officials have any comment on that? Do they have any comments on the fact that we do not have a green hydrogen strategy in Ireland yet?

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