Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It pains me to say this, but the Minister's tenure in this Department thus far has been an absolute disaster. Climate change is the biggest problem facing the planet. Each year, we see record temperatures and each year, climate change takes thousands of lives around the planet. We see a ramping up of droughts, floods and extreme weather events and these in turn are affecting the politics of the planet and are creating instability around the world. I hear the words of the Minister. I listen to the grave tones in which he is enunciating. However, I am struggling to see any concrete actions the Government has taken thus far in this area. Everything he mentions is a matter of horizon politics. Somewhere in the future, on the horizon, we will take a particular action that will resolve the issue. At this urgent time, I have heard the Chair of the committee talk about the need for consultation, analysis, research and plans. The only word she did not use was action, which is what needs to be taken.

The fact is that because of the Government's policies, this country is the third worst with regard to domestic carbon emissions. As has been said, we are on the verge of paying hundreds of millions of euro in fines because of its inaction on these targets. Look at what has been done by the Government. The only offshore wind project we have is the Arklow Bank Wind Park, which was built in 2004. There are 2.5 million cars on the road right now, and only a couple of hundred of those added every year are electric cars. Moreover, despite all the Government's plans, the number of electric cars sold in January 2018 actually fell when compared with the figure for January 2017.

It is said that diesel fumes now cause about 38,000 deaths internationally. Many other cities have concrete plans and actions in hand to take diesel out of city centres but I do not know of any Government plans in that regard. For years, many cities have had buses run on alternative and renewable fuels. Not a single euro has been spent by the Government on alternatively-fuelled buses in any city in the State.

What really gets my head spinning is the fact that Ireland has only 44,000 farmers who are actually making a living. The average wage for a cattle farmer in this State is €12,500. Most of those farmers are well placed to produce renewable energy. All they need is feed-in tariffs from the Government but yet the Government will not develop any such measures. In Britain, solar power from March to September now produces more energy than coal and nuclear power combined and yet there is not a single solar farm in this State. I call on the Minister to wake up, and fast.

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