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

I have one point to make to Deputy Naughten, if I can. This fund is not paid for by the oil companies. They collect it. It is paid for by the motorists. That is one thing to be absolutely clear, honest and accurate about. If I can refer it to Deputy Mattie McGrath, who asked me whether I was listening, the key question he asked was why could we not have used the money already raised. To answer Deputy Naughten's earlier concerns, in section 14, the proposed new section 37A(8)(b) states "Any moneys referred to in paragraph (a) which represent the proceeds of the levy collected and recovered before the commencement of the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) and Provision of Central Treasury Services Act 2020 shall not form part of any payment into the Climate Action Fund under this section." This is why we have the difficult timelines with this process, in fairness to Deputy Whitmore and others who have tabled amendments. This is the reason drafted within the Bill as to why we must make this change.

Deputy Michael Collins is absolutely right about the needs of the village of Goleen. If Goleen were in Switzerland, a village of that size of approximately 400 to 500 people would have the right to 12 bus services a day. The first stop would be Toormore and the second would be Lowertown before hitting Schull, Ballydehob, Skibbereen and all points in between there and Cork city. That is the type of significant change we can make for the better in this whole transition. Is it going to work? I commit as Minister with responsibility for transport as well as for energy to do whatever I can to match this type of service and to start thinking in this way to make it work, so that those young people do not have to cycle ten miles down the road and there are vibrant communities at all points in between. I commit to this.

To answer Deputy Fitzmaurice, he is absolutely right that forestry is in dire straits and my colleague, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, as a farmer herself has a good understanding of what is happening. More than anything else, as the Deputy has said, it is a planning problem and the biggest concern is a lack of public faith and confidence in what we are doing in development. This is why the fund is important. Central to this fund is helping small projects as well as large ones. It is about the small €5,000 community project. Deputy Mattie McGrath mentioned Tidy Towns and other competitions. This is not for Tidy Towns; it is for climate projects. If we can move Tidy Towns, however, to start thinking about how communities start being part of the climate solution-----

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