Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Minister of State is in the House to hear my few humble words on the climate action plan. The first point I want to make is that all plans can be torn asunder by the people reading them. They can nitpick and say this or that is wrong and will not work. The proof of the pudding for any plan is in its implementation. We need this plan and I agree we need to implement it. There are certain issues we need to watch out for, one of which is ensuring we do not turn people against us in implementing it. We need to bring everybody together. We must speak more about the potential in the plan for offshore energy and for the west of Ireland. For example, we need to put in the infrastructure to ensure Galway, Foynes, Cork, Ros an Mhíl and Killybegs ports are all ready to take on that potential. We must realise the full potential of the plan from a regional economic development point of view, as well as acting on climate action.

It is important to look at where we are at in this country right now and what grenades might be thrown in terms of issues that could create problems. One such issue is in regard to the retrofitting of homes, on which we have seen very slow progress thus far. I understand additional resources are being put into the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to try to move that on. At the moment, people who apply to the scheme may have to spend two years waiting for an engineer to come out and do a survey. I have seen that process happening, and I have seen excellent work being done afterwards, but it takes so long that people begin to lose faith. In the past, some people received a small grant to put cavity or attic insulation into their houses. They are precluded from applying for the new scheme, which would allow them do much more to bring their homes up to standard. That needs to be looked at to ensure people who got a token sum of €500 or €600 in the past to fill cavities are allowed back into the frame and can get more support.

An issue relating to protecting the environment was raised in the media in the past week. The more than 670 private wastewater treatment plants that are littering our country are a time bomb. In some places, raw sewage is spilling into people's gardens and into the seas. A sum of €300 million is the price the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, was given to put that right. Thus far, some €3 million has been put into it and approximately 16 private wastewater treatment plants will be upgraded and taken in charge by Irish Water. This is only tokenism, however, and the Minister needs to push matters along to ensure we get rid of this blight on our society. At the moment, it is left to residents to try to maintain the treatment plants and they are failing because they do not have the money to do it.

I know the Minister of State agrees with me that if we are to transform our transport system, we must transform our transport model. My pet subject is the western rail corridor, which is an example of what can be done to make public transport available to workers who need to get to work in the cities. The corridor is interconnecting Westport and Castlebar with Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford. It is important that we push these projects along. Some of them are not very expensive and can be done quickly. They show how the transformation can happen.

When I was Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, my remit included flood relief schemes. We have seen the devastation flooding can cause in this country. In my constituency, there is a number of areas where severe flooding has happened as a result of climate change. We must ensure we address that issue, which requires addressing our way of life and living to ensure safety into the future for the coming generations.

It is important that we get closure on a number of issues on which the Minister of State is working. One of these is microgeneration schemes for domestic dwellings where people have invested in solar panels and are producing surplus energy. Those people had an undertaking they would be compensated for the excess energy they are feeding back into the grid. Right now, however, they do not even have a meter to measure what is going back into the grid, there is no rate of payment and they do not know when they will be paid. That is creating a distrust around climate action that needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. Another small action that would help is to remove the need for planning permission to put solar panels on houses or roof sheds. People need to know they do not have to go through that process. It is important that we give homeowners a push, in the assurance that everything is working in the right direction.

I listened to the contributions from different speakers on the issue of farming. Farmers want to do and will do what is right. It is what they have always done to the best of their ability. They will be engaging in new means of working the land and producing food. What they need, and are looking for, is engagement and support to effect those changes. There will be a cost to doing so and they need to see that the schemes coming into place will support that, not take money from their basic payment schemes, which are there as a family support. Small family farmers, in particular, are very worried and that worry is added to by the vacuum that is being created. It is important to engage with them and get schemes in place that are workable and less bureaucratic that they have been in the past.

I heard a Deputy saying earlier that a just transition is about helping people to make a change. That is the point. We must help people to make the changes that are needed. If everybody does that, the just transition will work. Sometimes, in an effort to make those changes, we do not have the alternatives in place of which people can avail. I have spoken on several occasions about rural public transport. I often think about our school transport network, which delivers children to their schools in the morning, after which the buses are parked for the day before coming out again at 4 p.m. Making better use of those publicly owned buses could do a great deal for rural transport in my constituency and every other constituency around the country. We must utilise what we have.

As well as this, instead of falling over ourselves to produce all these electric cars, we should look at how we can get people to use alternative sources. One small example that the Minister of State might look into is a bus lane that is required from Claregalway into Galway city. It has been documented and talked about for nigh on ten years. It is small project, which would not require taking land, but for some reason it has not happened. We are trying to convince people that the best way to go to work in Galway is by bus. The private operators want to do it. They are blue in the face asking us to provide that bus lane, so that they can guarantee people will arrive at work on time.

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