Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

-----that we come back at each stage. When the five-year budgets are put in place and when we are doing the sectoral plan and action plan, we will check to see whether there is another way. We do have to do it. The reason it makes sense for us to do this is not just because we are compelled to do so because every country is doing it under the UN Paris Agreement. In agriculture more than anything else, if we do what we can do, we will have a form of agriculture that is the best for animal welfare, the best for restoring the 500 pristine river systems, of which we have lost all but 20, and the best for restoring bird life, insect life and microbial life in the soil that is not just good for the environment but good for the future of the farm and the fertility of the soil.

We will go out and trade and be successful as a country by being Origin Green, but we have to be radically Origin Green. We cannot go out just with the wrapping. It has to be the full thing and the full real deal. I am absolutely convinced we can do this and we will have a stronger country that is ready for the climate change that is coming. Again, it has been a cold, dry April. Many farmers are hoping we will not have what we had in 2018 when there was no grass growth and we had to import fodder. Switching to mixed swards, putting in clover, all sorts of clever agroforestry and other systems and revenue streams will be good climate adaptation as well as mitigation, which is what we need to do.

We need data centres. We have a country with real skills in digital services, financial services and modern technology. Central to these are data centres. We cannot turn around and say we want all the jobs in these high-tech industries but we do not want the data centres. We will have data centres. They will be powered 100% renewable. They cannot be powered by fossil fuels. They have to contribute to the balancing solution. They have to provide heat, so it is not just about insulation in our houses but using waste heat in a really clever way. This is a secure future for our country.

It has to be a just transition. To all who ask why there is not more detail in the Bill, it is because we would have to write a 10,000 word manual about how this has to support rural Ireland in a just transition. It has to provide unionised, well-paid jobs for our young people. This is the best way to eradicate fuel poverty. There is no better way than reducing the need to spend money burning fossil fuels. This is the secret to addressing fuel poverty in a just transition.

It has to have a role for the public. We are on a tight timeline. We want to include this year in the first of the five-year plans. This means we are really tight. The Oireachtas joint committee has used the time well for its work but we need to get our five-year budgets in place now and we need to put our action plan in place. We need to do this because we have to go to Glasgow in November with our heads held high. The country has been a laggard.

Like the prodigal son who went off on the tear for the while, we have come back to look after our home. We must have that all in place by November when the Glasgow conference takes place. It is not only Glasgow. We will go on to the one after that and the one after that. This will take decades.

This morning I read Wendell Berry, the philosopher, in relation to forestry. It is one example of the changes. Mr. Berry wrote something in Crannmagazine in 1997. One can apply this to every different section. Mr. Berry talked about a good forest economy, like any other good land-based economy-----

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