Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak to amendment No. 19, which my colleagues and I in People Before Profit proposed. The first question to consider is what we are seeking to amend. The answer is that we want to amend the Government's failure to provide a definition of just transition. There is only one mention of it in the entire Bill, even though it is one of the fundamental issues that needs to be dealt with in these provisions. That reference is in section 4(8) of the 2015 Act, as inserted by section 6 of the Bill, as follows:

(k) the requirement for a just transition to a climate neutral economy which endeavours, in so far as is practicable, to- (i) maximise employment opportunities, and

(ii) support persons and communities that may be negatively affected by the transition;

There is nothing in the Bill to force a just transition legally or make this Bill something to celebrate this evening. I am sure the Minister and his party will celebrate because they see it as a world-historic provision.

In reality, it is a missed opportunity. If the Minister were to talk to Bord na Móna workers or the aviation workers who have been laid off or will be laid off in future as we try to curtail our aviation activity, he would not find them jumping with joy and glee over this Bill. For them, just transition does not mean a move to equitable, fair and good employment and no impact on their livelihoods and way of living as a consequence of climate emergency measures. In fact, the Bord na Móna workers I met, when they were being laid off a year or two years ago, were very disillusioned with the whole idea of climate emergency measures, as represented by what was being done to them. That is understandable because many of them, having been told there would be alternative jobs, are ending up in low-paid, minimum wage employment, with no pensions or trade union representation and no real security or decent future.

The just transition that is needed will involve making stark choices about the type of society in which we live. Naomi Klein puts this very well in her writings on what is required for a green new deal, as she calls it. She argues that we need a society and an economy that are caring and sharing, not a society that favours big business, industry and the drive for future expansion. That drive is represented best in this country by the astonishing expansion of data centres, the number of which increased by 25% in the past year. The energy regulator has warned about the huge amount of energy they use. We have had three near misses with the grid in recent times. By 2029, data centres will be absorbing 70% of all renewable energy and 30% of the entire energy on the gird. How can there be a just transition when that is happening and, at the same time, we are telling farmers they must cut back their herds and telling ordinary people their carbon taxes will increase year on year? There are many people who cannot afford to retrofit their homes.

If we continue on this path, we will create more climate sceptics. The weaknesses in this Bill will definitely feed into climate scepticism. We are seeking to amend it not because we are opposed to the need for climate emergency measures but in order to strengthen them. I know, however, that the Minister will reject our amendments. We have been offered weak provisions for just transition for communities, workers and individuals. We need to change entirely how our economy works and stop facilitating the expansion of large industries at the expense of ordinary people, small family farms and workers in this country. That is what climate justice and just transition are about. We have tried to define just transition in this amendment and that definition is worth considering. As I said, the Minister's failure to include just transition as central to the Bill will lead in the long run to a huge increase in the number of climate sceptics in this country. People will hurt as a result of these provisions. Instead of having a countryside littered with data centres and windmills to power them, we need a countryside that is ecologically safe and friendly and has more schools, properly planned towns and decent farms that can facilitate alternative types of food production. We need to ensure everybody is included and nobody is left behind.

Other speakers have noted that the recommendations from the Oireachtas committee, whose members worked very hard to change the Bill, have not been taken on board. The Minister will probably remark that he has taken on board many of our recommendations from the time he issued the first draft of the Bill. In fact, the first proposals he brought forward were so appallingly weak, it would have been impossible not to agree to change them. We want just transition to encompass a host of measures that will support and encourage communities, individuals, workers and society to move on to embracing proper climate change measures. Unfortunately, the Government has a flippant and dismissive attitude on this matter. Before coming to the House for this debate, I participated in a "Drivetime" discussion on data centres with the chairman of the climate committee, Deputy Leddin. The interviewer remarked that Deputy Leddin did not sound like a Green Party Deputy but, rather, like a member of one of the conservative parties because he favoured the immeasurable expansion of data centres over the need to focus what renewable energy we produce on powering hospitals, schools, industry and transport.

Renewable energy, whether offshore or onshore, is very important but it needs to be used in ways that benefit our society. It should contribute to a caring and sharing society that looks to develop work and how people live in a fair way that does not diminish their way of life but, in fact, enhances and improves it. That is how we will improve the environment and the world in which we live. It is how we will get buy-in to climate action rather than an increasing number of climate sceptics. I am afraid the Minister's Bill fails on this most central issue of just transition.

All other things pale into insignificance beside it. This debate will trundle on and on but there is nothing here for workers, nothing here for communities. The Bill's weakness is not defining what a just transition is and it leaves a lot to be desired.

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