Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Michael Collins. There is not one person in the Oireachtas who does not want to help with the climate action effort and who does not have a green initiative of his or her own. Even if the Government is 100% successful in its plan to reduce emissions and have a greener way forward for Ireland, it will leave 1.7 million people and 300,000 households behind in its programme. If we look at the process of building a new house, the planning permission states that one must include something that will contribute to a greener environment, such as solar panels, air-to-water heat pumps or geothermal heat pumps. I am in full agreement with that requirement but what will happen to the people who cannot afford to upgrade their house, even with grants?

The National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, was established under legislation introduced in 2007. I understand the agency sought a meeting with the Minister but was refused. The Government should be sitting down with everyone. NORA has €300 million in reserve. That money comes from the 2 cent per litre of fuel which the Government continues to collect from every Irish motorist and householder. It is the person who does not have access to regular, reliable and convenient public transport who must pay this levy. The person whose home has poor energy efficiency and which requires tens of thousands of euro to get it heat pump-ready is paying out.

I am concerned about the impact of these measures on people in rural Ireland. I have a document in front of me with a graph showing certain statistics as they apply in different parts of the country. It shows that in Dublin, there is 10% reliance on oil products, while the figure for Limerick is 47%. I will go though more of these figures to bring the Minister up to terms with how rural Ireland is paying for his projects without any reinvestment going back into rural areas. Cork and Kildare both have a 40% reliance on oil, the figure for Roscommon, Carlow and Longford is 60% in each case, Mayo has a 62% reliance on oil, and the figure for Cavan-Monaghan is between 70% and 80%. The only place in the country that has reduced its emissions, because it has access to natural gas and other alternatives, is Dublin. That is being paid for by every motorist and householder outside of Dublin.

We might ask how the people in rural Ireland are being rewarded for carrying the levy. Approximately 686,000 households in Ireland are dependent on oil because there is no available alternative. Some 50% of the energy produced in Ireland is not liable to any carbon tax and there is no climate action levy applicable to it. It is a fact that rural people use the most fuel but that is because they have no other option and they certainly are paying for it. How does the Minister expect to reduce carbon emissions if he will not talk to the oil companies? If I go to the petrol pump tomorrow morning, I will pay €61.30 tax on every €100 I spend. If I am to get to work, I must travel and for that I must use fuel. At the diesel pump I will pay €56.50 in tax. The Minister is rewarding people in rural Ireland with funding of €8.5 million for gas projects in Dublin, €20 million to Dublin City Council for heating schemes and €4.5 million for the Tallaght district heating scheme. He needs to give people in rural Limerick and other parts of rural Ireland their money back and help them to reduce their emissions by putting the necessary infrastructure in place. I am asking the Minister to give us back our money. We are not willing to pay for Dublin to have zero emissions. We want zero emissions ourselves.

See this speech in context