Mr. Michael Ewing:

That is why we are working towards agreement on these issues.
On the various environmental issues raised, nearly everybody has raised energy and climate. Clearly, this is in the headlines and is a major issue globally. Deputy Durkan raised the issue of social justice in this regard. I totally agree with him that the matters of energy and climate are very closely allied to social justice issues at a global level. It means caring about the social justice issues affecting people in all Continents, including Africa, Asia and America. We have to take into account all peoples' social and human rights. In responding to climate issues, we must take account everybody's human rights and social justice issues concerning all societies.
We have a very serious problem to deal with in terms of the climate. We must reach a target of zero emissions by the end of this century. We need tohave an 80% reduction by 2050. These are radical challenge for us. They must be met if we are to survive as a species; that is a fact of science and not really an emotive issue.
Regarding the contradictions in Ireland with regard to agriculture and climate, there is an issue to be resolved. We have to work it out between ourselves. It is not reasonable for people to say we are feeding the world because we are not. We are feeding people from middle-class homes in India and China and other places with our agriculture. It is a perfectly legitimate thing to be doing but it is not legitimate to say we are growing stuff to feed the world because what we are doing may have implications in the longer term for the well-being of a lot of people in other countries in terms of emissions. That said, there is room for us to discuss how we should deal with that. We should be talking right now about how we deal with agricultural emissions in regard to forestry and peatlands and carbon capture in those two areas. It is not a clear-cut issue but a very complicated one.
My father is a farmer and his father before him was a farmer. I live in a farming community in north Roscommon and know exactly the position in the farming community on this but we do have to deal with the issue. It is not a question of just saying we are special because everybody is special. The coal miners in Poland are special, as are the car manufacturers in Germany. Carbon and climate change are very real and difficult issues we have to deal with as a species on the planet.
Fuel poverty is clearly a major issue for many people and needs to be dealt with in a way that also allows for a reduction in carbon emissions. That means looking after insulation and proper housing for people in fuel poverty. A measure needs to be implemented to allow those people to have decent housing that enables them to live comfortably without having to spend vast sums heating inadequate housing. That is the direction to go.
I believe I have more or less covered everything. I welcome the support for green energy. This is a direction to go in. Nuclear energy needs to be debated. There are issues concerning nuclear energy for Ireland in that it takes roughly 20 years to develop a nuclear power plant. In 20 years' time, we will need to be already solving the problem. An issue arises regarding fuel supply in terms of nuclear energy. There is a limited amount of fuel on the planet. I refer only to electricity but there are other forms of heating we need to talk about. There is a lot of scope for local energy production, which creates local employment, particularly in rural areas, through timber and biomass production for home and community heating. There are many steps that can be taken in this regard.
Broadening the tax base in this area in terms of reducing pollution is one of the areas that we, as an alliance, agree we need to talk about a little more. We need to talk about how it should be done and look after the interests of the socially excluded and marginalised. Making the polluter pay is an essential step, and it is a legal requirement in Europe in any case. It is something we should be doing regularly and our tax base should reflect it.
At present, we have a number of arrangements for subsidising activities that are environmentally damaging, and damaging to the climate. We need to examine how to change this.