Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sat on the Joint Committee on Climate Action. We deliberated for eight months. We spent many hours going through and teasing out what the Citizens' Assembly said. I will pick up where Deputy Fitzmaurice left off and express my support for the agricultural sector in County Limerick. The county is heavily dependant on the dairy sector. Milking cows was of great help in pulling us out of the recession back in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. We need to be mindful of that. Agriculture is our natural resource in Ireland. We do not have oil or any other natural resources. Agriculture has been our natural resource and we need to mind it at all costs.

We need to do this in a balanced fashion. I have been speaking to the farming organisations. I spoke to them as part of the work of the committee and farmers are willing to step up to the plate. They understand that there will have to be changes and that a transition will have to take place, but this must be done in a balanced fashion and be phased in over time so that economic hurt is not felt while the transition takes place. That has to be done across all sectors, which leads on to my next point, which is about public consultation.

We see consultation happening and ideas coming forward here in the Dáil. People have spoken about the west of Ireland and I am speaking about Limerick. Deputy Burton mentioned ratings and checklists with regard to retrofitting houses. These are the ideas that are starting to come through that will affect and help people on the ground. Public consultation is paramount. I have said this to the Minister privately as well. I welcome the fact that consultation has started. The Minister, Deputy Creed, is starting a public consultation process, as are the Ministers, Deputy Bruton and Deputy Donohoe. The committee specified that public consultation would be paramount in ensuring the success of our climate actions. It will prevent misunderstandings and misinformation and will allow for peer-to-peer learning and discussions between people on the ground. We need a bottom-up communication process because if we get this wrong and get the public's back up we will set ourselves back ten, 20 or 30 years. That mistake has been made before when dealing with other issues. We do not want to repeat it. Public consultation and education are key to taking politics out of the issue.

As I have said before in the Seanad, we have to avoid parties playing politics with this issue. We must stick to the facts, help people and communicate with people because this affects us all. This issue is not owned by any particular political party or group; it affects us all. It is therefore paramount that we get it right.

With regard to Project Ireland 2040 and transport, I am a big believer in our economic development as well as our climate change policies. I want to see the Cork-Limerick motorway and the N21 Limerick-Foynes route with the Adare bypass. I want to see those projects proceed. There is no reason to stop them or even to moot stopping them. The Minister may correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that the public spending code is to be reformed to include a shadow price of carbon, a hypothetical surcharge on market prices for goods and services that involve significant carbon emissions. This can be done in real time as each project comes up, whether in 2024, 2025, or 2026. It is proposed that the shadow price of carbon will be €32 per tonne in 2020, increasing to €100 per tonne by 2030 and to €265 per tonne by 2050. Each of these projects can be costed in real time as they arise. If, having been costed, they are stopped now, as has been suggested in other quarters, they will have to be costed again in 2024 or 2025. They will have to be costed twice. It totally defeats the purpose.

We need to progress with these projects. They are paramount for out economic development, particularly in County Limerick. The Adare bypass has been needed for years. The Limerick-Foynes route is required to service the deepwater port of Foynes. It is a European tier 1 port. Cork, Dublin and Foynes are our three tier 1 ports. Foynes can be developed because it is not surrounded by a city: it is a small country town. Such development would provide more jobs for the area and the greater mid-west region. It also has a sister airport just across the Shannon. Freight from Kildare is coming to Foynes to avoid the rush-hour bottlenecks in Dublin. It takes an hour and a half or an hour and 40 minutes. If this motorway is put in, the time to move freight will be brought right down. That frees up the whole mid-west, which is important for balanced regional development. It will bring people into rural Ireland. The Cork-Limerick motorway is connected to this issue as well. We can put electric vehicles on the motorway afterwards. That would mitigate its effects in respect of climate change.

A just transition and a lot of public consultation is required. I encourage all parties to work together as we did on the Joint Committee on Climate Action. I started from a position of ignorance before getting where I am today in respect of climate action. I learnt so much from the journey. It is about leading on this issue. How we lead will affect how future generations will perceive us.

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