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

This climate challenge belongs to everyone. I do not believe there are deniers in this House. The science is so clear. However, we need to become climate supporters. I was thinking in advance about what the Deputy might ask today. I thought about that issue of being close to the ground. I spent most of my time, prior to coming in here, working with the good people down in County Kerry. In going green, Kerry could be the lead on and centre of this. Rather than just not being deniers, it could be the top and the best at approaching the climate challenge.

I bet the Deputy, if he went to the likes of Fexco and asked where the financial industry and modern technology is going and whether Kerry would benefit from going green, they would say, "Yes". If he went to the likes of Kerry Group or the farming organisations and asked them whether going green will be part of what they have to do, I am convinced they would say "Yes". If the Deputy asked the good people in the tourism industry in Kerry, whom I know well and with whom I worked for years, whether they think Kerry would benefit or not from going green, I bet they would say "Yes". The Deputy could go down to Valentia Island to listen to some of the visionary thinking going on in places such as that on how we could tap into hydrogen power, the same way it was the first place of contact for cables between Ireland and America 150 years ago. Kerry will be at the front line and benefit from being good at this.

The climate challenge belongs to everyone. It will not work as a fight or if we play this as a divisive political game. That 72-year-old is rightly concerned about how he can get his house insulated. It is true there is a backlog, because it is 100% grant support. It is an incredible benefit to a home to get it up to a B2 standard. People's health benefits, which is the main thing, and not just the climate, as well as their pocket because they will not have to pay the big, extortionate bills, which are all due to the reliance on international fossil fuels. Weaning ourselves off those is good for Kerry and the whole country.

To answer the Deputy's question, I am looking at getting additional funding to reduce that backlog. It is not finally confirmed, but I might be able to come in the next week or two and show it as another of the additional measures we are doing to protect our people from fuel poverty at this time.

Does the Deputy not agree that going green will be good for Kerry and that to try to cling on to the old ways of over-reliance on imported fossil fuels from far-distant shores, where they are hugely expensive, makes no sense, when the seas off Kerry are full of very strong winds? We could tap into that energy and bring it ashore at the likes of Tarbert and help power industries in Kerry, as well as throughout the rest of the country. Does the Deputy agree that is the way to go? We all understand and accept the science. What is the solution? It is Kerry renewables. It is Kerry being good at high quality and getting a premium price for a premium system such as pastoral, family farming. That is the way forward. We should not divide on this, because it would not be good for Kerry or anyone else.

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