Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Rural Ireland and the farmers of Ireland do not need any lectures from the multitude of environmental NGOs or Green Deputies and Senators about looking after the land or our rural heritage. This is what they have always done down through the years. Unfortunately, they do not get credit for the great work that is done. For example, there is sequestration of carbon taking place. That is happening but it is not given enough credit.

The Bill is ambitious but it is ambitious nonsense. Where are the costings? Where is the sense of proportion or even the most minimal understanding of the extraordinary damage this Bill will create for the model of farming that currently exists?

The Oireachtas Library and Research Service is clear in its comments on this legislation that certain sectors will be more affected in the short term, namely, agriculture, energy and transport. Many people, such as those working in fossil-fuel powered electricity generation, will lose their jobs. We have had enough of that already in the midlands. Our communities in Laois-Offaly and the wider midlands area are being left behind. Not one job has been created under the just transition process.

Last weekend, we were all shocked to see that a local man who built up a bicycle hire business at a scenic spot that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists, namely, Lough Boora in County Offaly, cannot even hold onto his job. He has been passed over with a tendering process. It is totally unfair. Local people are not getting fair play. There is nothing fair about the transition taking place in the midlands. Jobs are being lost while none are being created. Local people are being excluded from the plans in terms of the policy and Bord na Móna's transition. Bord na Móna appears to have forgotten its loyal workforce and the local people who helped build up the company and build up a local attraction at Lough Boora into what it is today. I hope justice will be done in regard to that situation involving Pat Barrett and his family.

This Bill is essentially a just transition for the entire country. I urge colleagues, if they want to see what this looks like, to take a good hard look at the midland counties and to talk to peat contractors, Bord na Móna workers and many who have lost their jobs and still have mortgages and bills to pay. They are paying the price for idealism that borders on nonsense. That is what this is. Our experience of a just transition is one where entire communities have been left behind and where employment losses are masked by empty rhetoric of biodiversity strategies that care little for how ordinary people want to live their lives.

In terms of the costs, which do not figure prominently in this debate, an article on Bloomberg recently made it clear that making America carbon-neutral could cost $1 trillion a year. Relatively speaking, can we expect similarly unsustainable levels of costs here? Closer to home, it has been accepted in the UK that reaching carbon net zero will incur large costs. For example, in 2019, it was estimated that the total costs of getting to net zero would be £50 billion per year.

In this policy area, I highlight what is happening with the importing from Germany of lignite briquettes, which are not good for the environment. Lignite briquettes are being imported and the people of Laois-Offaly deserve answers. How is that reducing the carbon footprint? I strongly call on the Minister to answer that question and to be respectful to the people who have been punished. How will it reduce our carbon footprint, when we take into account all the transportation involved? What is happening is ludicrous. I cannot understand how logical and good people can honestly stand up and say this is a good thing when people are losing jobs and lignite briquettes and peat are being imported while 17,000 horticulture jobs are at risk of being lost here. It does not make sense and never will. The people imposing these policies on us need to stand up and explain themselves. At the very least, they should have the respect to do that. As a reasonable and logical Deputy, I am asking for answers. The people of the midlands, who are being severely punished under a just transition, need the answers to these questions. I urge the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to come in here and answer the questions that need to be answered.

In terms of forestry, it is a total joke. The programme for Government states the afforestation target is 8,000 ha. per year. The Government is missing that target by almost 80%. That was highlighted a few days ago in the Irish Farmers' Journal. How can the Government punish the people of rural Ireland while missing its own targets? Is that not double standards at work? It is crazy stuff. It needs to be questioned and I am strongly challenging it, along with my rural colleagues. It is not right what the Government is doing to people. It is totally unjust and I ask Government Members to come in and explain how it is working and why they think we should accept this and have such harsh measures foisted and imposed upon us. Has the Government seen the utter shambles the forestry sector is in and has been in for years? What is the solution? Is it to throw more farmers on the pile to clog up an already broken system while destroying their traditional way of life?

This Bill will ensure transport is directly hit with a sector emissions ceiling.

The implementation of various policy measures will have an impact on this too. That includes how quickly the level of electric vehicles increases. We know the Government set a target of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 as part of the 2019 climate action plan. That is equivalent to one third of the vehicles currently on the road today, but only if the Government keeps its commitment to ban petrol and diesel cars by 2030, which is ludicrous. From the parliamentary questions I have submitted we know that not a single local authority has made a move to install electric vehicle charging points. Perhaps they see how ludicrous the whole situation is and the policies and decision-making here. Let us be clear, the Government's proposal to outlaw the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 is ludicrous and must be urgently re-examined. My sense is that the proposal to force everyone to buy electric vehicles is being greeted with disbelief and genuine anger in many parts of the country, but especially in rural Ireland. The Government does not seem to understand how rural Ireland operates. It is making decisions and imposing them on people in rural areas. That is why we have such division. That is why we are coming into the House very frustrated. We are trying to get the message across to the Government that we are hearing from our constituents, but the Government that is made up of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party is not listening to us. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael seem to be very happy to let the Green Party run riot and to destroy rural Ireland.

As I outlined, there is no confidence in the Government's proposal to roll out a nationwide line of electric vehicle charging points, given the fiasco it has made of the national broadband plan for example. While there is obviously some merit in encouraging motorists to make the change to electric or hybrid cars voluntarily, the current proposal would actively discriminate against those who wish to continue to buy petrol or diesel vehicles and those who may not be able to afford the high prices demanded for electric cars. There seems to be no appreciation of the distances that some people have to travel in rural Ireland and the challenges that would result from an absence of charging points.

This Bill is a disaster. It is a dangerous piece of ideological lunacy that cannot and should not be supported by anyone with even the remotest concern for the future of rural Ireland.

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