Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the annual transition statement. I welcome the statement from the Minister today. Sinn Féin has been consistently concerned about the inadequate response and approach taken to date by the Government towards tackling climate change. We welcome the Minister's delivery of the annual transition statement as provided for in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, which Sinn Féin supported.

Sinn Féin has, however, stated in the past that successive environment Ministers have failed to follow up statements and plans with tangible delivery. We hope that the Minister, Deputy Naughten, will break this cycle and we will support those efforts. We have seen in the past how the Government has made numerous platitudes to tackle climate change but when it comes to action we fall short. Ireland is certain to miss its 2020 target of 16% total consumption of energy from renewables. The electric transport plan devised by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government in 2008 has only achieved a fraction of 1% of its target for electric vehicles on our roads, which is disappointing.

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As the Minister has already pointed out, the biggest factor in reducing emissions in Ireland over the past decade was the economic crash rather than any environmental initiatives taken. If we look at the targets, Ireland is already expected to miss its 2020 target to reduce carbon emissions by 20% and the EPA report outlines this. Emissions in 2015, as the Minister outlined in the Seanad yesterday, were 3.7% higher than in 2014, indicating the economic state of the country rather than any great plan we have is dictating our carbon footprint. The target was part of an overall commitment by the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels by the end of the decade.

Ireland still relies heavily on fossil fuel for its energy supply, with 85% of total supply being imported. If we are to tackle climate change we must start producing more of our own energy from renewable sources. I agree with the Minister that we cannot go backwards. We are here now and we must move forward. The Minister recognises this and Sinn Féin wants to take this approach. A key weakness to date has been the failure by the Government to diversify more generation of electricity from renewable sources. There is scope to encourage development of further solar, hydro, wave, tidal and biomass renewable energy. It has been limited to date, from the point of view that it has been very much about wind. The approach so far has been an overreliance on large scale wind turbines. Many of these were originally targeted at the export sector, and many of the turbines have been located in midland counties such as Laois, Offaly and Kildare. Because of topography and the flat landscape these turbines must be an enormous height. I was in a coastal county at the weekend, where the turbines are much smaller and get a better bang for buck. This has created a huge resistance in midland communities, who had to resist these massive developments by large companies in the absence of any guidelines or regulations, which the Government has failed to put in place. There were supposed to be moves on these in the first six months, and I again appeal to the Minister to do so.

For our part, I tabled two Bills over the past three years to regulate the wind farm industry. I appeal to the Minister to look at these Bills. He may agree with some parts of them or none of them, but I ask him to at least look at them and see whether there are parts he can use. We want to get a solution to this. We would say regulations and the Minister would say statutory guidelines, but let us not get into this too much. The main thing is that we put in place a planning framework. There is nothing there at present. We know what can happen if we do not have planning frameworks in place and we saw it in the past. Let us move forward quickly on this.

Sinn Féin recognises wind has a part to play in our future energy needs, but it must be part of a diverse range of renewable energy developments which must meet the needs of local communities and guarantee energy security. This is why it is disappointing to hear the Minister's recent statements that there will not be energy feed in tariffs for solar energy development.

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