Dáil debates

Thursday, 16 September 2021

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Climate Change Policy

9:10 am

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

Interventionist measures are required and the State is going to have to play a significant role to subsidise and support the retrofitting of social housing and the provision of the fuel allowance. We will have to use a sufficient amount of the carbon tax revenues we are going to raise to make sure that people are protected from fuel poverty, particularly in this time of rising international gas prices. I will also make the broader point that many of the measures associated with the transition will bring with them a more balanced, more equitable and fairer economic system. I will offer a basic example. The transport area is a huge part of the emissions problem. A major part of the solution is going to be the development of active travel and public transport. I have always seen that as a social justice project as well as an environmental project because those on the lowest incomes tend to have the least access to cars. Active modes of transport are often the most economically efficient, in that they cost the least. We need to think of the co-benefits of some of the environmental measures that will deliver social change.

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