Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think everyone in this country and in the rest of the world agrees that climate action is a requirement. In Ireland, there is a craving for work to be done and to be the best in class. Where I see it going wrong is that we are tripping over ourselves to bring in a Bill to change the situation and in many cases, as we say down the country, we are putting the cart before the horse. Agriculture is being unfairly categorised in the climate action agenda. We are best in class for dairy production in Europe and we are fifth in class for beef production. Why then are we saying that farmers are adding to the carbon footprint when in fact they are exemplars in what they do? The farmer is the custodian of the land and knows it better than anybody else. Farmers know the land is a source of food. If we reduce herd numbers, we will also reduce beef and dairy production. The alternative is to bring in beef from South America and one could ask what that adds to the carbon footprint.

Another way in which we have put the cart before the horse is that we stopped the production of peat briquettes and now we are importing them. We also stalled the production of milled peat for horticulture and now we are importing it. We are now stopping farmers from increasing production. What will they do then? We have also introduced a retrofit programme for houses but when a person with a fuel allowance applies for it, he or she must wait two years for an inspection. We talk about electric cars coming on-stream but we must look at how much it will cost people to replace their existing car with a new electric car. The infrastructure for electric cars is still very weak. There are charging points here and there, but there are not sufficient charging points across the country to give people the confidence they would expect in using an electric car.

People are being told to take out their stoves and oil-fired heating systems and to put in electric-source heating systems. The cost of making such a change ranges from €15,000 to €25,000 and a grant of €3,500 is available. Where are people going to get the money to do this? A better question still is where is the Government going to get the money to do this. We have a Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, scheme at the moment which is adding to the cost of the installation of new types of heating in houses. The reason is that a number of contractors have been selected and approved by the SEAI, in its wisdom, and other contractors are not approved.

We are, therefore, creating additional costs because the people who can do this work are limited.

I heard the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, speak earlier. She said this Bill was for the people, by the people. If we are to deal with climate action for the people we need to make sure that every decision we make is costed so that funding is available to ensure people can justly the transition to the change we require.

We have always talked about a just transition, but it seems to be a nice phrase to use. In effect, we need to make sure that nobody is penalised through the climate action movement that we have to undertake. We need to make sure that whatever efforts are required are put in place and are up and running before we stop something else. It would be a crazy situation if we decided not to burn any more turf or peat in our fires if the houses which now rely on that do not have an alternative in place or cannot afford to change. I am very concerned that we are in a zone whereby we are tripping over ourselves, and are not planning properly for what we need to do and making sure that whatever we do is of benefit to the people.

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