Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, as I outlined, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, will chair the committee. The agenda is clearly set out in the programme for Government. The immediate objectives of the Cabinet committee will be, for example, the climate action (amendment) Bill, which will be introduced to Dáil Éireann within the first 100 days of the Government, the development of a national retrofitting plan and the progression of matters in furtherance of our move to a higher rate of renewable energy, such as the marine planning and development Bill, which will be an important Bill, the wind energy guidelines and the just transition, in particular.

As the Deputy knows, we intend to hypothecate the carbon fund which will create about €9.5 billion over ten years. As the Deputy also knows, €3 billion of that is earmarked to protect against fuel poverty and the bulk is earmarked for retrofitting. The remaining money will be used for a rural environment protection scheme which will be designed to help farmers adapt to the challenges of climate change and create practices to remunerate and incentivise them to create practices that would be in alignment with our climate change objectives.

The climate action fund was established in law through the early enactment of the National Oil Reserves Agency Bill. In respect of Deputy McDonald's question, we will also publish a detailed all-of-Government implementation plan which will be consistent with the recommendations of the just transition commissioner's first report. The just transition commissioner was established as a statutory office and published the terms of the trust transition plan to frame the work of a permanent commission. There is a lot of work to be done, much of which is already under way by the Minister. The publication of overarching legislation is an important foundation stone on which many of the actions will be based.

Deputy Kelly said a lot will fall on the next Government. The key decisions that will be made now will clearly have an impact on the future in terms of our performance on greenhouse gas emissions. Building blocks have to be put in place now and will have an impact in the latter half of a ten-year period in terms of achieving a significant reduction.

I take Deputy Boyd Barrett's point very seriously, but I do not have the scientific proof. I am aware of the thesis on the link between weakening biodiversity and the growth of pandemics. There can be different factors. The growth of the world population has to be a factor and, in certain areas, it is certainly facilitating the ease of spread.

We have had SARS, MERS, H1N1, the swine flu and so on. Covid-19 is the one that got away insofar as it was not tested and contract-traced out of existence. I spoke to a number of scientists who are of the view that we may see these more frequently now than we would have over the past 100 years.

I support fully every effort to retain and strengthen our biodiversity. The Deputy mentioned ancient woodlands. We must do everything we possibly can to protect but also incentivise the nurturing of our biodiversity, which can recover if it is given the space to do so, both marine and on land. That is why I favour the rural environmental protection scheme, the just transition fund and also initiatives to create more native woodland on farms. We should try to persuade farmers to do this. We must have a contrast to the monoculture forestry policy. We need to grow more indigenous native Irish trees on a grander scale than we have done to date. That is extremely important and I will work with the responsible Ministers in that regard.

In terms of the retrofit agenda, obviously there will have to be a degree of upskilling. We have to work with the institutes of technology and education and training boards, ETBs, in developing programmes to bring a greater cohort of people who will be skilled in the retrofitting area. There will be significant opportunities in that field into the future because the Government aims to increase the number of retrofits and retrofitting activity generally.

Regarding Deputy McDonald's final question, the allowance is an Opposition allowance, which ceases when one is no longer an Opposition Member or Opposition leader. Therefore, it ceased on becoming Taoiseach. That is the basic approach.

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