Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The climate has changed drastically over the years and it will change again. I do not think anyone has a problem with technology, but we have signed up to stuff that is not attainable. I refer in particular to the EU 2030 climate target plan and what we have signed up to in that regard. I put on record that in energy, transport and agriculture, we are not fit to carry out what we have signed up to. We must own up to that fact. We are living in a fantasy world.

Turning to energy, we have one offshore wind farm. If we want to go offshore to supply our energy needs, then that will take ten to 12 years to come to fruition. If we choose hydrogen, then we will be looking at it taking 15 to 20 years to achieve results. RTÉ did a report on the production of hydrogen at Moneypoint and it seemed as if the hydrogen and wind turbines were going out on the sea the next day. The reality is that power station is burning coal and it is going to burn coal for the next five years. This is the lunacy that we go on with. We build up something that is not attainable. Take battery storage, for example. It is a technology for the future. It will be perfected, but it is not going to be perfected in the next few years. Solar farms must be brought on as well. These are things we must do. On top of that we also wanted data centres, and then yesterday no one wanted them.

We then talk about forestry. I drove 112 miles or 114 miles today. There were trees on both sides of the road on every part of that journey. Not one of those trees is counted in our carbon assessments. There is an acre of trees on every farm in the country, but that is not considered. No one seems to be bothered about it, and the agriculture sector is getting kicked and kicked again. Turning to transport, if we had these one million electric cars that have been talked about, where would we be today when we are on the cusp of our lights going out? Moving to school buses, a long time ago when I was going to school in the 1980s, there was a school bus in every village. Now we are not able to bring the kids to school. Instead, sports utility vehicles, SUVs, bring children to school and that causes an increased use of carbon. Why? It is because of the cuts imposed on rural areas. In addition, the beef and suckler herds in this country are the most efficient. Deputy McNamara talked about methane. It involves a ten-year lifespan.

Ireland is the best at something, and if we are the best in the class at it, we need to be kept at it. In addition, the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry is in the Green Party and forestry has been in disarray for the past 18 months. This year we will have fewer trees planted than ever before.

Another issue that must be addressed, which is becoming sickening for rural people, is the amount of objections coming in day after day from the environmental lobby. That will not be tolerated. As we saw in the programme the other night, the houses of the people around Lough Funshinagh in Roscommon are getting flooded. Someone with a garden containing nice green bushes, that has come from another country, has been telling people in Roscommon what we should and should not do, and about the law. I watched Greta Thunberg go blah, blah, blah the other day. She should do one thing: get into politics in her own country if she thinks she is going to solve the world's problems.

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