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

They may well be but I will account for Green Party policy in this area. We absolutely have to work hand in hand with those farmers, who are important custodians of the land. We must also pay them properly. The land use plan will not involve going down to the level of individual farmers and telling them to do this, that or the other because, to be honest, they are best placed to know how to manage the land. They know the land and what happens on it better than anyone in an office in Brussels, Dublin or anywhere else possibly could. In those Dublin offices, however, we have the responsibility to shape the support mechanisms and income supports to ensure that tens of thousands of young farmers will continue the proud tradition of Irish family farms and of people managing and protecting the land. The expansion of the CAP fund is being discussed in the European Council as we speak this afternoon. Everyone at that level is saying that nature must be looked after in what we are doing because we have a biodiversity crisis and a climate crisis. This land use plan is absolutely in the interests of, and to the benefit of, family farms, particularly in the north, west and south west of the country. It will help to deliver the income that will give them a future and opportunity.

With regard to amendment No. 11, we should absolutely look at measures being developed with regard to carbon sequestration not only in the implementation of this fund, but in other ways as well. There is a stimulus package to be launched next week. I would love to see money in that to help Bord na Móna or others to manage our bogs. The rewetting of bogs under the land use plan is critical. That will allow us to store carbon and to prevent its future release through bog fires. It will also help to restore biodiversity. Deputy Whitmore is absolutely right when she says it is probably one of the best ways to improve water quality, restore biodiversity and tackle carbon emissions. We must fund that not only through this climate fund, but through other mechanisms as well because the scale of what we need to do is beyond compare.

With regard to accepting amendments, Deputy Whitmore's amendment No. 16 has real merit because this has to come from the bottom up. It has to be community-led. This is not about big business or big anything else. It has to be about local communities having a connection to and involvement in this. This is why I believe amendment No. 16 has particular merit and why I would love to include it in the climate Bill. That would give us an extra €10 million to put into such projects, which is why I propose doing it in that way.

Deputy Michael Collins referred to LNG. The €1.85 trillion investment plan at which Europe is looking rightly says that the fuel of the future will be green hydrogen. This is only starting and will take some time to evolve and develop but we have a huge competitive advantage comparatively because we are one of the windiest places in the world. This Government is going to aim for 70% of our electricity to be generated by renewables, where we have a real competitive advantage. This supports what the previous Government did and what was agreed by the Oireachtas joint committee and by all of us across the board. We will particularly focus on offshore generation. Floating offshore technology is coming down in price and our wind speeds are very high. The environment is tough but in Galway, Kerry, Cork, Donegal, Mayo and Clare we can turn to this resource to create wealth for our country.

If, in the ten years it will take us to start building this network capable of generating 30 GW from offshore wind, the price comes down as expected, and as it consistently has over the last 20 or 30 years as the technology has evolved, we can use that power to create green hydrogen through electrolysis. This would be stored in and shipped from locations like Cork Harbour or the Shannon Estuary, where there is deep water and a sheltered space close to the energy source, the offshore wind farms. This is a big investment - we are talking tens of billions - but it is absolutely in tune with what everyone is now saying. As I read it, international energy experts believe this is where investment and technology are going and this is what the momentum is towards. We happen to have a huge comparative competitive advantage because of our level of wind, our location and our safe harbours.

I will absolutely meet Deputy Michael Collins at Cork Harbour, but when I meet him there I will tell him we should be developing facilities for green hydrogen. Fossil fuels are of the past. We have to stop using them because our climate is threatened. Green hydrogen is the future. It will provide jobs and an energy supply that is competitive and clean and which will mean our children and their children will have a safe and secure economic future. That is what we need to do. This fund may help to start some of that. The €500 million to €700 million we raise over the next few years will not fund the whole thing. It is only the tip of the iceberg with regard to the investment we need to make. That investment needs to be made in the west, including the south west and north west, in particular because that is where the energy resource is.

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