Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Crowe very much. It is my slot now and I have a few questions. This topic we are discussing today is on foot of an interparliamentary committee meeting in Brussels I attended on behalf of this committee and Parliament regarding the hard-to-abate sectors. It was very interesting to hear the different perspectives from countries that were also contributing. Representatives from many different EU countries were in attendance. Some people were giving a presentation, like myself, and others were just there to listen and contribute from the floor. One got the feeling from central Europe that people were asking why we cannot all use trains. In France, they have reduced flights of less than two hours where there is a decent rail service and so on. Then, people like ourselves, Malta, the Canary Islands and northern Sweden were saying that it is not a one-size-fits-all scenario. We always have to keep banging the drum and reminding people that unlike many other places, we cannot jump on a train in the same way they can. They can even go from London to Brussels or London to Paris very handily on the Eurostar but we cannot. It is important - I acknowledge the Minister of State does this - that we all remind people that it is not a one-size-fits-all scenario. We are all doing our very best. We all want to do our very best in every way.

Making use of our trip to Brussels, we also visited Eurocontrol and paid a visit to Ms Mairead McGuinness, our Commissioner. We also visited the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport,DG MOVE, which deals with the aviation sector in the European Commission. We were reminding people that aviation is central to all of our activity in Ireland. We punch well above our weight in this regard. Our colleagues from County Clare have left the room, but a statue was recently erected in County Clare to Brendan O'Regan, who actually invented the concept of duty-free, which is all over the world now. It was invented in Shannon, as was Irish coffee. Half the world's aeroplanes that are leased are based out of Ireland. The biggest airline in Europe, Ryanair, is based in Ireland. Equally, Aer Lingus is also a big contributor to both Ireland and aviation generally. Indeed, Mr. Willie Walsh is director general of the International Air Transport Association, IATA, the chief executive of British Airways is Irish, the chief executive of Qantas up until very recently was Irish and so on. We have a lot to do with aviation.

However, we also heard about things like, and I am not sure how much work we are doing on this now, the powering of the aircraft when they are on the ground. Rather than using the engines to power the aircraft and air conditioning and so on, it would be done by electricity. Equally, when cruise ships come into Dublin, the idea is that they are not using fuel, if you like, but electricity from the grid, which is hopefully being generated from renewable energy, for example, or offshore wind when it gets going and so on.

My question is about where we are in respect of on-the-ground activities, for example, with the taxiing or the push-back of the aircraft or using the engines less on the ground.

It will not change the consumption of fuel by long-haul flights hugely, but what are we doing to do everything we can do to decarbonise and remove the use of fossil fuels where we can?

Ultimately, and a lot of members have touched on this, do we expect to have some plans in Ireland to generate sustainable aviation fuel ourselves? Obviously, it is all imported at the moment, and it is very small at the moment. I think we are looking at it being used at 65% or 70% by 2050. There will be a blend of 70% sustainable aviation fuel by 2050. This is not as far away as it sounds, as Senator Doherty pointed out. Based on the fact there is a very large airport very close to the Minister of State's constituency and to where many of us members are, we will need lots of sustainable aviation fuel. We also need to be doing other things. Everything we do in terms of aviation and maritime must include reducing and removing the use of fossil fuel in every part. What else are we doing and what else can we do?