Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have had a number of interesting interventions in the past while. There is an acceptance of the situation we are in with regard to climate change and the necessity for changes to secure our future. I agree with the commentary on a whole-of-government response and if we are talking about just transition and ensuring security, sustainability and capacity to deliver on climate action, we need such a response. We need a connectivity of ideas and not what is happening, in that sometimes we have silo options and elements of government, the Civil Service and others, which do not communicate and we do not put solutions in together. I will deal with some of this later.

There has been much talk in the past while on energy security. A large cohort of people are worried they will end up brutally impacted, not only by the rising energy costs, some of which I accept is outside the control of Government, but also the fact they might not be able to purchase or avail of energy, due to brownouts and blackouts. We need to ensure everything is done. This highlights a failure to plan over the last period. I am sure even data centres are not entirely impressed at being in a place where they do not necessarily have energy security. That is accepting data centres are part of the world in which we live. We accept the companies that use them. We accept the importance of all that, but we need to ensure we have a facility, capacity and an energy system able to deliver for our people, before we look at any future planning and building of data centres. That is why a moratorium is called for until the necessary due diligence is carried out.

The questions on the grid are in the open. There is talk, even if some of it is anecdotal, about the capacity and the storage capacity we do not have, if we finally get our act together on wind energy. Will we lose significant energy through dissipation, because our infrastructure is not up to scratch? We need to ensure an audit of the highest calibre is carried out and that we know the ins and outs and put a plan together.

We all accepted years ago where we need to go, but we need to put a plan in place. There has been talk for many years of microgeneration. We have heard farmers talking about their difficulties with plans that have been put in place on solar panels and the rest of it, which is all too little, too late. No one is putting together a fully thought-out project or system that will work and through which we can get more people to play a role in generating power and removing the pressure in the system. We are not putting the parts in play to make this happen.

We talk about transport. People are being hammered by carbon taxes and they do not have alternatives. We still have the school transport farce every year. A large number of people cannot avail of the scheme and we force parents to take children to school in cars. We, as a State, are not being part of the solution. We need to get all this together. The Minister spoke yesterday at the transport committee, about planning difficulties with certain projects. Large public transport infrastructure projects have been delayed and others may be delayed. This is frightening, but if there is a difficulty with the planning system, it needs to be reviewed as quickly as possible.

County Louth has a development plan. The Office of the Planning Regulator makes a decision, the local authority operates in another silo and then there is the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage officials and all the others. None of it works, nobody communicates and we do not have a proper conversation. The same goes for rural housing and the need to maintain rural communities, but we have never had the full conversation. Politicians are talking out of both sides of their mouths and there is no sign of a solution. That is across the board and we need to deal with that and get serious.

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