Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----and quite effective in terms of European wild bison, for example. A programme is being led from the wildlife park in terms of various species of toads. We need to be funding organisations like Fota Wildlife Park, Dublin Zoo and those which are involved in global interbreeding, breeding programmes around wildlife and protecting endangered species. That is what we need to be doing more of but we need resources to do that. We need a re-engineering of our economy towards the green economy and also the decarbonised economy.

We have to change how data centres are developed in terms of back-up generation but also in terms of renewables being used by those who wish to construct them, and offsetting technologies being deployed by such companies. We have, therefore, a twin-track approach on the economy, which incorporates digitalisation. Digital transformation will happen but all that has to be borne along with the green economy. NESC has reported on all those issues.

Deputy Devlin raised a key point. He summed it up when he said that we have to do things differently this time in respect of the human trauma and crisis that will emerge as a result of the appalling assault on the Ukrainian people. The Deputy referred to families in his constituency who would gladly house people. We will need that in addition to what the State can do order to deal with the sheer numbers that could come into the EU and, by extension, Ireland. We have to play our part as an EU member state in sharing the burden and by being generous and open. We have to talk to our educational partners and stakeholders to facilitate children to attend our schools. There is also the social protection aspect.

Deputy O'Connor raised a matter that I will ask NESC about. He made a very good point about long-term renters in Ireland, as well as what are the correct policy frameworks to deal with them. NESC has done some work on this already. I will ask NESC about a more comprehensive approach to that issue. I appreciate the Deputy’s interest in it.

Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to the Housing Commission, which earlier announced details of the referendum sub-committee that will examine the complex constitutional issues around housing rights. The Housing Commission will propose appropriate wording to the Government for a referendum on this matter. The sub-committee is being chaired by Dr. Ailbhe O'Neill, who is a barrister with extensive practical experience in constitutional law, a former adviser to two referendum commissions and a member of the school of law at Trinity College Dublin. She is joined on the sub-committee by Sorcha Edwards, secretary general of Housing Europe, Pat Doyle, CEO of the Peter McVerry Trust, and Patricia King, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In addition to these four members of the Housing Commission, the sub-committee has been supplemented by external members, including Mr. Justice Frank Clarke, the former Chief Justice and a former referendum commissioner, Gerard Whyte, professor of law at Trinity College Dublin, Rosalind Dixon, professor of law at the University of New South Wales, and Madeline MacKenzie, parliamentary counsel in the Scottish Government’s Parliamentary Counsel Office. I am sure that the Deputies will agree that that is a very strong sub-committee. It will focus on this very important issue, in respect of which there is a commitment in the programme for Government.

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