Dáil debates

Wednesday, 17 June 2020

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (Resumed)

 

4:25 pm

Photo of Barry CowenBarry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The impacts of climate change are already evident for us all to see. In recent years, Ireland has witnessed heavier rainfall, stronger, more destructive storms and more flooding events than at any time previously. If we consider the impact of Covid-19 on our economy and our society in recent months, we need to multiply that when we consider the potential impacts of climate change on our country and indeed the world. It is highly likely that climate change will significantly increase the flood risk in Ireland due to rising sea levels, increased rainfall in winter, more heavy rain days and more intense storms.

It is crucial, though, first to tackle the causes of climate change rather than simply protecting against its impact. This week the respective parties have agreed a programme for Government. It now proceeds to each of their memberships and that programme for Government sets out an ambitious programme to fight climate change. It is critical that we tackle this crisis now, before the damage done to Ireland and the planet is irreparable. There will be a massive retrofit programme and upgrading more than 500,000 houses with better insulation and energy-saving technology. There will be increased spending on cycleways and walkways, making it easier for children to cycle to school and for many workers, too. There will be an ambitious capital programme and investment in public transport and renewable energy, while the electrification of the transport system will of course be accelerated. There will be a major drive to realise the immense potential of Ireland's offshore renewables.

The carbon tax income and the increases that will be forthcoming will be ring-fenced for a just transition and to protect people on lower incomes and in fuel poverty.

The draft programme for Government contains a number of measures which will be very important in supporting a just transition in the midlands. This will be even more critical given the announcement yesterday that Bord na Móna has further suspended peat harvesting and further accelerated the decarbonisation of its product and is now bringing forward the commencement of work on the enhanced peatland rehabilitation scheme. I welcome the commitment by Government on foot of that decision by the board. Having received legal opinion, the Government brought forward €20 million from within its own funds in order to accelerate that rehabilitation scheme, which has the potential to create an atmosphere whereby those jobs will not be lost immediately or anything like it into a four-year programme.

These measures will play a vital role in implementing the recommendations of the just transition commissioner's report. We have provided in the programme for Government to place his office on a statutory basis, and given clear commitments to grow the size of the just transition fund. Work must begin immediately, given yesterday‘s announcement, to ensure the release of funding for reskilling, amongst the proposals being considered on foot of the recommendations from the just transition commissioner in his report last month. It is critical that we bring people along with us and that we make the transition to a low carbon economy. Not only is this morally imperative but I believe that people will be much more on board with the transition if it is just and fair.

Given the commitments in the programme for Government, we cannot be naive to the impacts climate change is already having and will continue to have on the 300 communities studied by the CFRAM report throughout the country. According to the OPW, some 80% of the properties investigated are at risk of flooding and two thirds of the population within it are at risk of being impacted by such flooding. These figures will likely increase in the years and decades ahead. Under the CFRAM programme, projects already completed and in the pipeline should protect 95% of the properties mentioned that are at risk of flooding.

It is critical that this programme for Government, therefore, is passed and that a Government is formed and that funding is provided by the OPW so that it can fully implement the CFRAM programme and continue the work that has gone into producing it in recent years.

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