Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sympathise with Deputy Whitmore; five or six minutes is too little. Normally, transformative change of the sort we are undertaking is created by some disruptive technology that sweeps everything before it. What is unique about this crisis is that we have to make this transformative change by an act of human or political will. That challenges us all because the task of politicians is to resolve conflict. It is a test of the Opposition as much as Government parties because this is a task for a generation.

I have seen other parties come to the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action and demand more and more ambition yet, when it comes to looking at any of the tools necessary to deliver that ambition, they shy away. They do not want to see carbon pricing, for example. They do not want to see that people will have to make changes in their lives and want everything to be done by big oil or big business. They present that as just transition but that is not what it is about. Just transition is about helping people to make the change in their lives that is needed. There is a basic dishonesty in trying to pretend that there will not need to be change in our lives. There will have to be.

I have great respect for Deputy Martin Kenny but suggesting that microgeneration on the roofs of farms will solve the contribution of farming is simply not realism. We all have to talk about this in much more committed terms rather than finding a little political nook to wriggle off the hook of this issue and point the finger at the Minister of State, who is trying to make this happen. We all need to make this happen over the next 30 years. We all aspire to be in government over that period so we have a vested interest in all of us making this work.

Ireland is more reliant than anyone else on making these changes occur. We are one of the biggest carbon emitters in the world. We are higher than the rest of Europe in virtually everything, including transport, heating and agriculture. We are higher than them all. We are also one of the most export-oriented countries in Europe so there is a major obligation on us to be an early mover. Our enterprises depend on being able to sell into a market where tastes will change and people will demand environmental sustainability. We want to be in those high-margin premium markets so the onus is on our enterprises to make those changes early, but it cannot be penal. I see some people pretending that we must punish the ICT or farming sectors. That is not the way to get this done. We must work with both those sectors because they are part of our strongest export-oriented sectors. It is vital to the continued growth of rural and urban Ireland to see those sectors continue to be strong. We need to find solutions and work with those sectors to fix the problems they face.

The key is that the enterprises that make those changes early will be the profitable ones. If you talk to people who are engaged in smart farming, promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, they will show they are already cutting their costs by €6,000 by adopting some of the measures in the plan. Those of us who want to see a prosperous and thriving rural Ireland have to recognise it will be built on the infrastructures and practices of the future, not those of the past. I fought tooth and nail to get people to agree to the national broadband plan and there was a cacophony of opposition from across the benches saying that it was not the way to go.

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