Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I could not possibly do justice to the many contributions that have been made. It is encouraging that Members are significantly on board for the sort of transformation we need. As Deputy Eamon Ryan said, an existential threat of this scale gives us an opportunity to challenge our civilisation to step up to show its greatest creativity and its greatest capacity for collaboration. This is a real challenge.

I expect to have continuous scrutiny in this Chamber and to hear condemnation from some quarters of everything we have put into our plan. It has struck me during this debate that many people are looking for some magic change. They seem to think that by blocking particular infrastructure, the change we need to make will suddenly be resolved. Deputy Connolly summed it up best when she criticised the plan on the basis that it offers many of the pieces of the jigsaw without presenting an overall picture. I contend that the difficulty with this challenge is that it requires all the pieces of the jigsaw to be slowly pieced together.

The Government has a significant responsibility to lead, be accountable and create the framework within which all of this can happen. Many Members want to pretend that all of this is about big business, as Deputy Martin Kenny suggested. They want us to believe that if we stop big business, we will suddenly have renewables and our homes and vehicles will no longer depend on fossil fuels. The reality is that we have to create many new infrastructures. As Deputy O'Dowd pointed out, many people, including people who say they are climate champions, are prominently opposing the very infrastructure we need for the new environment.

We need to help people to switch from high fuel-emitting activities. Ireland is one of the highest users of fossil fuels in Europe. We have to see how we can change our patterns of transport and home use, our renewables, the way our industries work, the way our waste system works and our agriculture sector. That involves helping individual farms, enterprises and homes to make changes in practical ways. Those are the pieces of the jigsaw that make up the big picture.

It would be great if there was some breakthrough idea that would suddenly lift all of this burden of change from us. It is not realistic to suggest that everything will be resolved if we suddenly close down big oil. The users of fossil fuels have become dependent on them. Companies have been making profits from fossil fuels for many years, but it is a sunset industry that will gradually fall away. We still have to find the transition, create the roadmap and bring people along the road. I think that is the challenge.

Regardless of who is sitting in this seat, he or she will face the same challenges. I have done eight roadshows. I have been going around the country to talk to people. I have met many people who, like the Deputies from the Rural Independent Group, believe we are asking far too much of them and have suggested that they need to be paid first. We have to find ways of persuading such people to make the changes. There is no point in coming into this House without talking about meeting challenges like retrofitting 500,000 homes, or planting an additional 250,000 trees over the next decade. Today, 4% of vehicles are electric vehicles, but we need to increase that to 100%. Similarly, we need to move an additional 500,000 daily commuters onto public transport or active means of commuting like cycling. Those are the nuts and bolts of the change we have to make. If we are to get five times as much renewable energy onto our grid, we will need more wind farms and more solar farms and we will need to develop offshore infrastructure and interconnectors.

All of these elements make up the jigsaw to which Deputy Connolly rightly referred. One can be very critical of any piece of the jigsaw, but it is part of the overall effort. That is the challenge for us in this House. I never expect plaudits. I am around here long enough. The job of Opposition Deputies is to criticise. My job is to learn from their criticism and implement it as best I can in policy changes as they evolve. I try to do that. I try to listen to what people are saying and integrate their suggestions where I can. That is why I took up the concern about exploration. I obtained the scientific advice and I made a decision on the basis of that advice. I have decided to stop exploring for oil but to continue exploring for gas. That is the way decision-making has to be done in this area. Of course, this approach does not have the clarion call of the introduction of a Private Members' Bill. It is more deliberative and it is slower. It involves building the data to make the decision. That is the only way we can do this. We have to make the choices that impose the least burden on people while creating the most opportunity.

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