Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

This motion expresses an essential truth, namely that the Government has been negligent in anticipating the scale of the world energy crisis and has failed to devise policies to deal with its effects. Most particularly the Government has been negligent given that those who suffer most from these effects are those who have least. The ultimate responsibility for this indifference rests with a Government that treats environmental issues and issues of energy conservation with a distaste that belies anyone with any proper respect in public life.

Last weekend at the smugfest that was the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government referred to my party and its supporters as jihadists. If any people deserve the title of eco-terrorists it is those who have put in place policies that Nero-like seem to ignore that not only is Rome burning but also the planet itself is burning. Despite this, those most in need of heat and sustenance are those with least. For three years the Government failed to increase the social welfare fuel allowance and has a policy that believes the need for fuel allowances exists only in certain months rather than on a full-year basis. The Government has failed to introduce energy policies as has been done in Denmark which now provides 25% of its energy needs through wind power, while we are scrambling to reach 3%. The Government is full of incompetence and indifference. The people will suffer for that distaste for introducing proper policies.

It has produced 90,000 housing units in a year, practically none of which has any proper energy efficiency standards. The attitude seems to be to build them quick and get them up fast with no one caring what kind of standards people live in. Those who suffer most, the elderly, must not only live in houses that are badly insulated, but because of their income they must resort to buying the cheapest and least efficient fuels that have the most damaging environmental consequences. Yet the Government does nothing. Like Deputy Gregory, I am disappointed the motion does not go further. I appreciate it gives a platform for a wider debate, which is needed. It needs more than just three hours of Private Members' time in a given week. This is the essential international political issue that anyone in public life must seek to address in the next decade and beyond.

If we are serious about meeting the energy needs of current and future generations we must do so in a fair and just way. Currently this policy is determined by people outside our country who run multinational corporations and by nations whose interests are in the fossil fuel industry. If we, as an island nation that is 90% dependent on imported fuel for energy needs, are serious about breaking away from the shackles from which we can break away and starting to become somewhat self-sufficient in meeting our energy needs, we need a Government to introduce policies to address these needs. We need a Government that does not play along with the type of indifference we see. We certainly need Ministers unlike the Ministers for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, and the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who seem to believe the best form of policy formation is to attack other people in political life who do not make the political decisions or allocate the resources and are not responsible for the mess of our energy policy or the suffering of too many of our citizens who live in fuel poverty.

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