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

I wish to speak to amendment No. 19 on the just transition.

I come from a county that is bearing the brunt of a just transition. The Minister felt the need to only mention "transition" once in a 7,000-word document. As that is a huge insult to the people of the midlands, I suggest the Minister go back and revise this.

It is shameful that the Minister has rejected amendments from all the Opposition, which put forward constructive amendments, reached out and tried to be collaborative. It is appalling. It reeks of elitism, the fact that the Minister does not care and the real arrogance of the Government. Let me remind people that the Green Party would not be doing what it is doing without the full support of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is shameful.

I was in this Chamber with my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group last year and we pleaded with the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, to accept amendments to the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020. She refused to accept those amendments. As a result, we have chaos continuing in the forestry sector. Does the Minister think that is fair to counties such as Laois and Offaly, where we depend on employment in forestry and in Bord na Móna?

The former leader, the great Taoiseach Seán Lemass, must be turning in his grave to witness what is going on here tonight and the way the Government is selling out the country, selling out the people and walking on the ordinary rural people of this country. Let me tell the Minister this will not be forgotten and that will be for the wrong reasons. It will not be for a good reason. This will never be forgotten.

I urge the Minister to try to be constructive because it is shameful. I have dealt with hundreds of workers. I have dealt with horticultural workers, peat-harvesting workers and workers in Bord na Móna and what the Minister is doing is disgraceful. These are workers with bills and mortgages and the fact that the Minister cannot even provide alternatives is disgraceful.

The Minister should be standing up and explaining to the people of the midlands how importing briquettes and peat makes sense. When one looks at the carbon footprint created by the transportation of German briquettes or peat into this country, is the Minister for real? What planet is he on? The Minister is not on planet Earth; that is for sure. We can see that. Any practical reasonable person with an ounce of common sense would see that the Minister is not in the real world, and more shame that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could allow this to happen to the people of rural Ireland.

The Minister is destroying the midlands. Not a single job has been created. The Minister had no alternatives. The Minister would not even define what a "transition" meant and it is only mentioned once in a 7,000-word document. What does that say to the people of the midlands?

What does the fact that we have the so-called just transition commissioner being moved to another, second role to sort out pay disputes on a Government expert group? What does that say to the people of the midlands? It is truly an insult.

This will go down in history for the wrong reasons. I urge Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Deputies to cop on to themselves and serve the people who elected them, namely, the people from rural Ireland, such as the people from my constituency of Laois-Offaly, who put their faith in them and went to the polling booth to vote them in. I ask them to stand up for those people, because this is serious.

It is serious also that the Minister is happy to have a dictatorship called the climate advisory committee put in place. He is willing to legislate away the ability of Dáil Éireann to have any say in what happens in the future. It is disgraceful. The Minister is imposing this on the people. He is not bringing people with him. He is leaving communities behind.

I remind the Minister that no jobs have been created in the midlands. Offaly will bear 53% of the brunt of the job losses and the Minister thinks that is fair. Seriously, I do not know what planet the Minister is on but it certainly, as I said, is not planet Earth. The Minister needs to get real here. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need to call a halt to this because it is ruining communities and good counties, such as Laois and Offaly, where people have worked hard in traditional employment and where people have made sure that there was work, there were jobs and they supported the local economy. What the Minister is trying to do is cripple the local economy and that is coming across clearly. We get that message clearly where the Bill states, in the proposed new section 6A(9), that "The Advisory Council shall— ... in so far as practicable, ... maximise employment". Is this for real? I thought it was a joke, when I read it, that the Minister is not prepared to prioritise employment and that Fianna Fáil is prepared to let him away with putting something like that into a Bill. I mentioned Seán Lemass, a great man who got semi-State companies up and running. There is no way this should be happening in the absence of alternatives. The Minister will plunge lower-income families into poverty. There will be fuel poverty. There are no alternatives. We are seeing German briquettes in our shops in Offaly. What the Minister has done really makes no sense.

In fact, the Minister has put off many people who were climate activists and who were active on the environment. They have gone the other way, in disgust and in disillusionment. I know that for a fact because I am in contact with many young people who were active and enthusiastic about the climate change agenda. This makes no sense, as anyone with an ounce of cop-on would see. It is doomed to failure. It will go down in history for the wrong reasons, as will this sham of a Government propped up by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies who come from rural Ireland. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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