Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

This is an important debate but there is not sufficient time to fully tease out the arguments. What this country needs is leadership in terms of climate change but we are not getting that from the Government. We need leadership, a clear vision, a plan of action and, most importantly, a change in our own behaviour. The reality is that unless all of us make fundamental changes in our homes, our lifestyle, where we work, how we go to work and where we live, we will not deal successfully with the issue of climate change.

It is disingenuous of the Minister to suggest that regardless of how bad our emissions are in Ireland, they are only minuscule in terms of the world's emissions. The reality is that all of us, no matter where we live, must make those changes. This Bill is about Ireland not having made the changes. It is about industry not being able to cut back on its fossil fuel use and its production of carbon dioxide emissions and not using other initiatives, which I will deal with later. The option to buy carbon credits elsewhere is an indication of the distance to target on which we are missing out.

As I understand it, our distance to target is approximately 7.14 million tonnes of CO2 which we must reduce to stay within the Kyoto limits. Any money we spend abroad in buying carbon credits, regardless of how attractive that might appear, is an acknowledgement of a failure of the system to deal effectively with the issues at home.

The Minister made reference to industries in my constituency. He referred to the cement industry and to Premier Periclase, which is an important factory in my town. I am very much aware of the effect of a carbon tax on those industries. I am equally aware of the effect on the other 109 facilities throughout the country. I acknowledge and support the principle that our industry must be competitive and that anything we do in terms of climate change must have at its core the maintenance of our economic development while cutting back on our emissions, using new technology and changing our ways to make that happen.

Most of our problems in Ireland arise from energy production and transport. While the Minister is not responsible for the transport portfolio, in terms of the national spatial strategy it has failed. All the infrastructure we are building is on the east coast. Everybody is trying to live on the east coast but we should make it attractive for people to move out of the city and live in Cork, Galway, Donegal or wherever. That would reduce our transport emissions and deal effectively with the problems of modern Ireland, where we are all crowded into the Dublin region.

It is disgraceful that for many of us who travel by train or car, the infrastructure does not exist to encourage people to get out of their cars. There are no park and ride facilities, a point I raise constantly, on the north of the country for those travelling into the city. That is not acceptable. There is no joined up thinking in the Government to deal effectively with the policy on energy, transport and agriculture and ensure all of us make every effort to change our lifestyles. We must make it easier for people to travel by public transport and encourage them not to pollute with carbon dioxide emissions.

The Government must encourage investment in new technology. We should encourage people to change the type of fuel they use. We should examine the possibility of increasing forestry, improving efficiency and effectiveness in business and improving efficiency in our technology. More money ought to be invested in research and development and we should incentivise that area as much as possible in terms of tax relief and new technology to allow people to change. At the core of all of that is the need to reduce our CO2 emissions. Notwithstanding the fact that I support in principle the need to buy carbon credits abroad, we are not doing enough at home.

One of the key actions the Government has failed to take was to set a sufficiently high target for renewable energies in terms of our total supply of energy from all sectors. Much of the money that is going abroad should be used to incentivise people to set up wind farms and examine research and development projects in renewable energy. That is an opportunity the Government has missed.

We must change the way we live. We must look at countries like Sweden which decoupled from thermal power production to biomass. We must encourage moves to all those areas.

Fine Gael's policy on those issues is clear. We will legislate to compel all fuel retailers to blend biofuel into fuel such as petrol, diesel and home heating oil. We would remove all excise duty on biofuels produced from renewable energy crops. In practice, that would mean that producers would not have to pay excise duty on the biofuels they produce, the knock-on effect being that consumers would enjoy cheaper fuel at the pumps.

We believe in an open public competition for start-up grants for the establishment and operation of biofuel processing plants. We would require all public transport vehicles and public service vehicles to convert, where practical and feasible, to forms of biofuel whether in a pure or blended form. The Minister's refusal to take our proposals on board means that our environment and our economy will suffer for another year.

Notwithstanding the green sell on the budget, there is no bite in what the Minister is doing because it will not happen. He is consulting but he is not acting. There are no substantial changes in VRT. He talked about redressing the issues in terms of car tax and pollutants but there is no real change in that respect because the Government has failed and continues to fail in that regard. It is all words and no action. That is not acceptable to us and it is not acceptable to the country.

The other issue I want to address is the way Fine Gael will address the issue of climate change. What will we do that is different? How will we ensure that there will be real change throughout our country? The core of our policy will be that the energy committees that have been set up — I understand 16 committees were set up initially throughout the country — to advise and deal with issues surrounding energy conservation and climate change will be put on a proper footing. They will be part of a local government effort, led by local government, to examine every aspect of life in our communities; it will be driven locally. From talking to people about this issue, the main questions they raise is who is introducing change, what is different and what is happening. The Government has policies on this area and the SEI is established, which does fantastic work, but nobody is driving the agenda for change locally. That is what my party will change. That is where the effort must be made and we will do that.

It is a shame that some of the energy committees established throughout the country do not have the necessary funding to continue operating. Some people working on them are employed part-time and there is no future for them in these jobs. Local government should be at the core of change with a real and aggressive policy that focuses on reaching local targets to reduce our overall emissions. There are leaders in the field. The local authorities in Limerick and Clare worked together and produced a strategy for climate change and emissions reduction for those counties. We hold up that strategy as the bible to be followed by every other local authority. That is the direction in which we need to move. We need to examine this issue at a micro and county level and not only at the national level. We need to ensure local authorities will drive this change and we need to put in place a comprehensive strategy to provide that all policies locally will be examined from a green point of view. Every planning application should be vetted for carbon proofing and energy conservation, but that is not happening. We need such a strategy as a default system in local government whereby when an application is submitted, it is examined specifically not only in terms of planning and engineering issues but in terms of climate change and energy conservation. We will ensure that every local authority will conduct a full inventory of CO2 emissions and then produce a plan of action to reduce them.

Part of the problem is that the emissions trading scheme rightly deals with the major polluters but nobody deals with all the other people who use energy. There is no focus on light industry, schools, hospitals, shops, other sections of the economy and areas of our life where these changes must be made. Fine Gael will insist that local authorities will consult all those businesses which are outside the scope of the emissions trading scheme, inquire of them their plans to reduce energy usage and request that they report within a year on what changes they will make.

My party will advise people on the best way forward and on best international practice to address climate change. We will encourage the adoption of best practice to deal with climate change, even as a benchmark as to what people can and should do.

Who is going to schools and pointing out to teachers that they have a unique opportunity to influence young people in this respect? Dealing will climate change can be driven in the school curriculum. The Minister could advise the Minister for Education and Science that he wants this issue included as a core subject under the SPHE or some other heading to ensure climate change is addressed. Nobody is doing that. People are talking about that but no action is being taken. The Minister should ensure that bodies such as hospitals and Government Buildings are approached to establish what is being done to address climate change and how such necessary change is being driven. The Minister should discuss this issue with officials in other Departments. He should make a start with his ministerial colleagues and inquire of them the cars they drive, the level of emissions for which they are responsible and how will they lead in introducing the change that is required. That is what must happen. When carbon proofing and energy conservation policies are at the core of all activities throughout the country, then we can say we are dealing with climate change. We can then say that if we do not meet our targets, we can explore the alternative the Minister has put forward in this Bill and we can consider purchasing our carbon credits abroad.

The reality is that the Government has failed. According to an article in The Irish Times, Ireland is not doing enough to reduce gas emissions. Notwithstanding what the Minister said, under the protocol the Taoiseach has been told we are not doing enough to deal with our emissions. From reading an article on the European website, I understand that mandatory limits will be imposed for 2012 onwards. Therefore, it is time to get our act together. It is not the case that by our actions we will save the world or destroy it, but at the core of the Minister's thinking is a failure to acknowledge that individual responsibility must be taken by all of us to deal with it. His comments were supercilious and do not make much sense.

It is time to introduce the change that is required. We on this side of the House will lead such a change strategy, if the Minister cannot. He needs to put in place a policy that is at the core of people's lives and of local government and that is driven by local government, which must be given the necessary new powers to take control, carry out audits and ensure everybody is consulted and complies, if they can, with such policy.

Santa Monica in California has an attractive policy in leading such change. However, in Ireland nothing is happening in that respect. Speeches are made, we have credits and the ETS, but nobody is moving in the direction of bringing about individual change. The Minister is not driving that agenda and that is his biggest failure and a massive failure of the Government. The country is crying out for it and people want leadership. We will provide it on this side of the House. The Minister's speech was poor on vision. He needs to go back to the drawing board. He needs to re-examine his approach and base it on best practice in this area worldwide. He needs to change matters but he is not doing that. That is the biggest regret of all.

The Minister made it clear in his speech and I will make it clear in my contribution that we in Fine Gael support the concept and principle of the Kyoto Agreement. There are three options in terms of meeting our commitments to the Kyoto Agreement. We can introduce tax, reduce emissions and use the emissions trading scheme and carbon credits. We accept that must happen. I support the principle of the Bill that we must have that as an option. It may be cheaper to do that rather than close an industry. The Minister referred to the cement industry. I am sure cement could be imported from other countries in the world and, if that happened, our factories in Limerick and Drogheda might close. That could happen. I do not want that to happen nor do I believe does anybody else.

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