Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to introduce this Bill, along with our climate spokesperson, Deputy O'Rourke, and Deputies Guirke and Quinlivan. Green hydrogen offers major possibilities, but achieving them requires a strategy. Green hydrogen is an alternative fuel for transport, including long haul drivers and HGVs, which are important in my constituency, Kildare North. It is fast becoming something of a logistics hub. Climate change is thundering towards us. Continents are burning and Europe is being washed away, yet despite a small fortune being spent on climate consultants and advisers we do not have a hydrogen strategy. We are not even preventing climate change at this stage; rather, we are mitigating. The strategy in the Bill will help us to address our fuel needs and meet our Paris commitments. Just transition must be central to all we do, because we cannot have climate apartheid, whereby one group has electric vehicles in their driveways and solar panels on their retrofitted holiday homes while others cannot put their heating on. It would be inherently wrong and socially destabilising. This is a leap we must make together and our Bill will help us to achieve that. We cannot delay and depend on the private sector. I am glad to put this Bill before the Dáil.

See this speech in context