Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I understand that €100 million has been committed over three years by the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, to assist poorer countries to tackle climate change. Consequently, either the Minister, when responding to this debate, or someone from the Government side should indicate the current status of this initiative to Members.

The content of the Bill has already been anticipated in the joint committee's report. Members often speak in this House about the partisan nature of politics and I agree it is understandable that in certain circumstances, the House will divide on political or philosophical issues or on managerial issues pertaining to how the country should proceed. However, an issue such as this, on which a cross-party report has been produced that has been accepted by all political stakeholders and with the Green Party in power, should surely be out of the starting blocks already. At this point, Members should not only be talking about heads of agreement and so on.

There is a sense that because the economy has taken such a downturn, an issue such as climate change can move to the back burner. I reiterate a point made by Deputy Barrett by questioning the reason the election of a mayor for Dublin is being prioritised through changes in legislation. Why does that measure take greater precedence than an issue such as climate change in the legislative programme before Members?

I refer to today's Order of Business in the Dáil and the furore, partly started by me I admit, on the decision by the European Court of Auditors to critique a Government decision on the closure of the Irish sugar industry. While one may ask the reason this is pertinent to the subject under discussion, I was town mayor of Mallow at the time when the sugar factory there closed and one issue I sought to put on the political agenda was an examination of the potential for ethanol production. It was considered that if Ireland was moving out of sugar production and if the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries were going to be given a greater slice of the market under the Everything But Arms initiative, then this was a WTO decision to which one would, to a certain extent, be obliged to buy in to. At that time, I was strongly of the opinion, based on sound advice, that there was potential at least for a survival mechanism for the plant for two years. Thereafter, once the market had opened up, it would be a case of sink or swim depending on how the global market went. It is now evident that the global market for sugar has increased but in the absence of the continuation of sugar production at the Mallow plant there could have been a move towards an ethanol production facility.

Timing is everything because this year, the House has transposed the bio-fuels obligation legislation, which seeks to ensure that each tank of petrol has ethanol or alternative fuel sources as part of its constituent composition. The Labour Party strongly believed that stimulation of an ethanol production market within Ireland was possible but to be able to so do it would be necessary to put in place a set of tariffs. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, rejected this position. I am not trying to score political points because if I understand his position correctly, he wished to go back to ascertain what would be the Commission position on such a proposal. Members opposite will correct me if I am wrong in that assessment. Nevertheless, there is a precedent in respect of ethanol importation as I understand that other countries are placing a tariff on importation to stimulate local production within their countries.

I represent the constituency of Cork East, within which is located the Whitegate refinery. I am reliably informed that for a number of years, the big oil companies operating at Whitegate have been storing up undenatured ethanol that more than likely has been imported from third countries such as Brazil. While it is probably derived from former forestry sites, Ireland has not even started localised production.

In respect of climate change, I refer to the attempt to wean ourselves off petrol and to substitute it with alternative energy sources. One does not do this by allowing big oil companies to control the political agenda, thereby enabling them to meet their obligations under the bio-fuel obligation scheme by imports from locations such as South America because that does not make any sense. At that time, when Members were doing battle on this Bill, I would have thought the Minister, Deputy Ryan, would have been ahead of the curve. I would have expected him to play, dare I say it, the green jersey card by asserting that Ireland would stimulate local demand. This comes back full circle to my point about Irish sugar and how, at a time when Ireland is importing substitute ethanol to put in its cars, it could have an ethanol industry that could provide the same service. This is where political thinking in Ireland has become so disjointed.

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