Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My first point will be on economics. I honestly believe that if the Bill is implemented in full, it will break the country. The Government's suggestion is that everything will have to run on electricity, but it has closed down power stations. We have had three or four close calls since Christmas, including as recently as a couple of weeks ago. We do not have the facilities or ability to generate enough electricity. Take the data centres as an example. We have been told that they are using 8% of all electricity and that in seven years' time, they will be using more than 30%. The cost of electricity will increase and people will not be able to afford it. It has already increased, yet there has been little mention of it. The cost of everything has increased. The cost of electricity will certainly increase because it will cost more to generate and transmit it. The Government will have to consider using gas. It has ruled out the Shannon liquefied natural gas, LNG, project, but we need gas in the interim because the wind does not blow all the time and energy derived from wind turbines cannot be stored. No less than anyone else, I appreciate alternative energy. We should be pursuing it, but we are not and there is no mention of doing so in terms of solar farms or energy derived from our rivers. We cannot even smell near a river. We cannot clean out a river to help to prevent people from being flooded. Doing so would be a crime.

The trouble is that there is no proper recognition of the detrimental effect that the Bill will have on the economy. There must be room for gas to keep the lights lit.

Methane gas from cows can be used to our benefit by providing gas which can be added to the grid.

The Minister will have to surrender his ideals that everything must be electric. Let us talk about electric cars. We do not have enough points to charge cars. In time, when things improve, electric cars may be fine, but at present they are not. It is not a sustainable idea for people to buy an electric car if they drive to Dublin or drive long journeys to work. If they have the windscreen wipers and lights turned on - people driving to work must have their lights on while driving in the morning and the evening - that brings more pressure. Electric cars are not an option at present. That is the honest humble truth and the Minister will have to wake up to that. People are being told to get rid of petrol and diesel cars. People do not know what to do at present, so they are not buying any car. Those in the motor industry will tell the Government that. People are getting one story from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that they should be using electric cars, but at the same time they know they are not reliable enough, until they are.

It is like the cutting of the turf. The Minister and the Government, it seems to me, are hell-bent on stopping rural people from cutting turf, like they did with Bord na Móna. That will happen in time when the present generation is no longer able to cut it and the younger generation may not be interested in doing so. That will happen in time, but the Government, in this Bill, is putting deadlines on the people, which I believe is wrong. The Government signed up to the Paris Agreement. I believe I was the only Deputy who, in late 2016 or 2017, voted against the deadline because it will be very unfair and unviable. It is going to hurt the working man, the farmer and rural Ireland more so than the urban population. I appeal to the backbenchers in the Government parties to consider that what is happening here is too quick and will affect ordinary working people, the working class, like nothing else has before. I am so concerned about it.

There were many people up in Dublin today - farmers from Kerry, poor people - and they said to me it is hard enough to carry on without having to come up to Dublin to drive home their point to the Government. The Government must realise that those people have many other things they should have been working on today, because fine days are scarce in Kerry. You talk about the climate, but it is a different climate, a different world, once you pass Macroom or Mallow. It is a different world altogether. You would know about the climate if you were trying to survive where we are from. We can only get a couple of days.

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