Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputies Quinlivan and Martin Kenny.

Climate change is the major issue of our time and it is relevant in the context of this plan. The plan contains a substantial commentary on climate change, which is a local, national and global issue. The NPF is a series of vague aspirations which lack clarity and vision.

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The Government plan states that there will be energy research funding into solar and biogas but these are well established industries worldwide and particularly across Europe. We do not need to conduct a whole new batch of research into these as they are already up and running and working. We need to specify what energy sources will replace fossil fuel. There is a proposal to stop using peat and coal by 2030 and to convert the coal-burning plant at Moneypoint at a cost of €1 billion but it does not say what will replace it. There is a proposal to phase out peat by 2030 and that will affect Laois-Offaly, Westmeath and the whole midlands. Again, though, there is no outline of what will replace it and there is no plan to establish an indigenous biomass growing industry in counties such as Laois, Offaly, Westmeath or anywhere else. Bord na Móna imports biomass from across the globe at present and it has imported it from as far away as Indonesia. It is nuts and it is not sustainable from an environmental point of view given the carbon miles that this will clock up. It also intends to buy a biomass plant in the United States. Why is the Government, as a shareholder on behalf of the taxpayer, not insisting there is a plant built in the midlands to process biomass such as willow, which could be grown by local farmers and would create local jobs, to be used in local generation plants such as Longford or Edenderry in west Offaly?

What about biogas? It is mentioned but there is no clarity on if or how it will be established. There is huge potential in biogas and we have some of the best resources in Europe with our large farming sector. Biogas would deal with the present problem of slurry and we could use that and other waste, such as food waste, to produce electricity, heat and transport fuel. This would provide a boost to farm incomes and bring jobs into rural areas across the country. The Government plan is for 500,000 electric vehicles by 2030 and that is welcome but there is no mention of how this will be achieved. We only have 2,000 on the road currently, among the lowest in Europe, and no certainty around the charging network so how can we achieve this target?

I see nothing about local authorities in the plan. Local authorities are the arm of government that interacts with local communities, as the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Damien English, will know. We need to take climate change seriously and there is a big role for local authorities, something Sinn Féin has been pushing for a long time. There is a need for a clear plan that includes local authorities as well as the sectors mentioned. We need specific actions and we need to specify energy sources. If we do not do this we will continue to use fossil fuels in an unsustainable way and to live in an unsustainable manner, causing damage to the environment. I ask the Government to revisit the role of local authorities and to be more specific in relation to creating a biomass and a biogas industry.

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