Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are in a climate and biodiversity emergency. There is no doubt about that. As a country, we will rise to the challenge and we will be able to become leaders in our response, rather than the laggards we are at the moment, because this House reflects the will of the Irish people and they want to do it. I believe that the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Deputy Bruton, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Fine Gael Party are sincere in their desire to tackle this issue. That belief is partly underpinned by the fact that the people who vote for Fine Gael want us to tackle that issue. The party does not only represent industrial interests; it also represents the people.

From the recent election campaign and previous experience, I know that the people want to do it. I trust that Fianna Fáil has the same instinct. It also represents its voters and its people, who do not want to destroy the future for their children.

I have similar faith in the Labour Party and Sinn Féin. Most of the time I agree with my socialist friends that in making this change we can alter how the whole economy works. It is not just about keeping everything the same and changing around the edges; it is about everything. I also trust Deputy Broughan and the Independent Deputies, even those with whom I fundamentally disagree and who argue that this is the wrong action for us to take because it will bring great fear. I do not refer to Deputy Broughan in that regard but, rather, to some other colleagues we could remember. We should listen to them and answer their fears about making the leap.

We should stand up for the House, which has done good work on this matter in recent years. There is consensus now, as there is among the people, that we want to do this, as has been reflected in the work we have done. We need to organise where we should go from here to show leadership. We should go to the people. We should trust and ask them for help rather than tell them what to do. We must admit it will be difficult and that it is a considerable challenge which will require massive change, but it will be change for the better and we should not be fearful of it. There will not be penury, hardship and disadvantage will not be brought but, instead, a fairer and more successful society and country.

We have to avoid the mistakes made in America, where the issue has become one of division between the left and the right. We must avoid what happened in France, where thegilets jaunesrightly said, "Hold on a second, you have forgotten about us." We must ensure that it is a just transition and that in our response, we will not accentuate or give the sense of a rural-urban divide. It must be good for rural and urban people throughout the country and we can do that. We must avoid the mistakes the UK is making and recognise we must do it in co-operation with every country in the world through the Paris Agreement but especially within Europe, where we can raise the funds to help us make the necessary changes.

I do not doubt the sincerity of all Deputies in their desire to make the leap we must make. While the Government has agreed on the goal, although it has not quite articulated it and must do so clearly, it is slightly frozen, in a conservative way, by the scale of the challenge. Thus far, the solutions that have been offered are technocratic in nature, marginal and are not sufficiently bold. It is not a system change. A reduction in emissions of 2% per annum will not suffice, nor will putting off the issue until the next decade or making decisions today that will make it even more difficult to make changes in subsequent decades. We have to make changes now. We need a vision for how a different system will work.

Let us consider the Minister's action plan. Yesterday, I asked him a question about action No. 110. Let us broaden the debate; let us use the national climate dialogue that is in train but widen it further to everyone with an interest in how our land is managed in order that a map will be set out for what we will do. I refer to everyone with an interest in farming, wildlife, bogs or seas. We should tell them that we need to treat everywhere as special, a matter on which I am sure we all agree. We need to restore hedgerows around every field and change the nature of fields in order that biodiversity will be protected, not destroyed. We need to reconsider our sea areas, which are ten times larger than our land areas, and take the advice of E.O. Wilson by setting aside half of it for marine protection whereby, as one of our contributions to climate leadership in the world, we stop fishing and every other activity and measure and monitor what is happening in the north Atlantic Ocean. One of the threats is what is happening in the north Atlantic Ocean. Let us understand that and be world experts in managing it and in the difference that develops in an ecosystem when it starts to be protected rather than destroyed. Benefits may accrue from storing carbon and having stronger, more resilient marine systems.

Let us be honest with the people and tell them that we will eat, or that it will be better for us to eat, less meat. We must also tell them that we will not rely on the current model whereby we just export live cattle and sell them to farmers at less than €5 a head and that we will instead trade on the basis of the Origin Green brand while obtaining a commodity price. We are not serving Irish farming. Let us be honest with the people and tell them that size of the national herd must be reduced. In the gap, however, however, when we do things differently, we will switch on a whole new horticulture sector in society. In every different area, we must consider how we will create a natural forest that is a pleasure and a joy to walk through, rather than planting thousands of hectares of single-crop, quick-rotation, monoculture forestry every year. In our mapping out of a new land use plan, we should ask people in all communities for their views. We should say to the people of counties Leitrim and Roscommon that we hear what they are saying about not being able to keep going with forestry as it is. Let us ask the honest question as to whether the adoption of new forestry methods that would lead to the generate tens of thousands of jobs for young people and create a beautiful local environment in which biodiversity would be restored and from which we would garner a long-term wood supply would work.

We have just elected new councils throughout the country. In the same way, let us ask every council to produce a new development plan that reflects the climate emergency. The councils are declaring climate emergencies as we speak. Roscommon County Council is due to declare a climate emergency next week. Let us start by asking how we could restore life to towns such as Ballinrobe or Boyle. There are stunning towns. The Bianconi hotel, in the centre of a village, sits empty. Could we not introduce brilliant bus services in order that such towns will be restored and use dilapidated, shuttered and closed houses as a solution to the housing crisis by returning people to the core? We should do that in every town and city centre. In Limerick, only 3% of the population lives in the historic core. Could we not flip that and, instead of building massive motorways between Limerick and Cork, build a public transport system in Limerick and Cork now to build the cities up? Could we not bring life back to the centre of Cork and put a tidal barrage at the end of the harbour in order that the city will have a sustainable, long-term future, irrespective of the sea level rise? That level of radical ambition and change is what we need. We can and will do it collaboratively and collectively, and we will do it well.

The Minister is correct that an action plan should be iterative and that we should be willing and open to doing things differently. Retaining the current national development plan, as if that helps us in any way, is not true to that approach. That is the first thing we must willingly admit needs to change. We should respond to climate strikers, who have played a significant role in changing the consciousness. During the election campaign, older people who vote for Fianna Fáil, socialism or Fine Gael responded to me at the doors. They said they were keen to act. We need to listen to what they say because it is true. In the light of the climate emergency, in every school in September, can we start asking how we can create a safe route to every school? It should not be the case that only 20% of children get the required level of exercise every day. We must design a system to allow them to walk, cycle or take the bus to school. That should be seen as part of the response to the climate emergency we face. All our engineers and best people should be put to work on it. It should be set as our first task for a new generation in a 21st-century Ireland that is green in every way. It is doable but we need to be brave and ambitious. We need to go beyond the existing plan, which is not good enough, not least in transport and agriculture, the two great failings. There are many energy initiatives but we all know that it will be a massive challenge to make them happen.

We are up to the challenge, however, and we will be good at it. This country is set to become a leader. Let us go out and do it.

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