Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Bill commits us to a 51% reduction in emissions by the end of the decade. In my constituency of Meath West, the one project that would make the most difference to climate action is rebuilding the Navan rail line. Irish Rail could rebuild the railway line from Dublin to Navan in three years if given the green light and funding was approved by the Minister's Department. Currently, a review is ongoing. We need it to be successful and for funding to be approved. We spend €2 billion a year on congestion. The Navan rail line would cost €500 million. The population of Meath is 210,000. Navan is the largest town in Ireland not serviced by rail. The project has the full support of all elected representatives across all parties and all council officials are fully behind it. The environmental argument is very strong, taking thousands of cars off the road daily, and is a must for the future success of our county.

Wind energy is an essential part of our approach to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. Plans on paper are fine and well, but if we want it put them into action, we need to listen and engage with communities and respect their concerns. Wind energy guidelines must be updated, which has not happened since 2006, taking into account set-back distances from people's homes, noise, and shadow flicker. If turbines must be 600 to 650 ft high to get the desired wind speed because of low-lying lands, are these areas really suitable for wind farms? We must also do more for offshore wind energy.

Take into account turf cutting on Bord na Móna bogs over 30 ha. There is one bog in my own area, Lisclogher, on the Meath-Westmeath border, on which 300 families have cut turf for years. It is the only way they have of heating their homes. They have been told they may no longer be able to cut turf on this bog. Retrofitting houses takes time and money. We need a phased approach to ending turf cutting on these bogs of over 30 ha. It has been a way of life for generations and a tradition for hundreds of years. We need to give people a chance to source other ways of heating their homes. This was originally supposed to be phased out by 2030, but now people are being told they will be given a couple of weeks' notice. This is not working with communities and bringing people with the Government. It is walking on them.

The North-South interconnector is another important piece of infrastructure. EirGrid recently announced that the new 400 kV Kildare to Meath line will be put underground. The argument EirGrid used for years about not undergrounding the North-South interconnector was cost. Undergrounding the Kildare-Meath line is more cost-effective than overhead lines, so much so that the cost is no longer a key part of EirGrid's decision-making. It is obvious EirGrid has learned from its mistakes and experiences with communities that the only way to get the Kildare-Meath line completed quickly was to underground it. We need EirGrid to do the same with the North-South interconnector. Recently, the Taoiseach reportedly told a meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party that this will be reviewed. We now know this will only be a review of the last review and is a whitewash as none of the stakeholders, including community groups, will have any input.

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