Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for his effort and his work behind this motion. I welcome that the Government is not opposing it and is going to work with the contents of it. I find myself in a strange position. I am absolutely committed to tackling climate change. It is the greatest existential threat we face, and we have to take action. My difficulty with a lot of what the Government is doing is that it would appear to be on a divide and conquer basis. On this occasion, there is a division between the town or city and the rural areas. The feeling for me, and for those on the ground, taking Galway city as an example, is that urgent action is not being taken in relation to climate change. We are not rolling our park and ride, public transport, and so on. We took away waste management responsibilities from the county councils way back in 2001, when Galway City Council distinguished itself by working towards a zero waste strategy. However, it was unacceptable to the Government at the time. The Minister will remember all of that. We said "No" to an incinerator not on the basis of NIMBYism, but on the basis of a zero waste strategy, using three bins and so on. I say that by way of highlighting that the people are way ahead of us on so many issues, including neutrality, climate change and what is needed. Justice and equality comes up on the doorsteps all the time. I have never heard about anybody looking for a reduction in tax in all the time I have canvassed. What they have asked for is services.

Back to the topic at hand, what happened here is most unfortunate, to put it at its lightest. Rather than anticipating and analysing the problem and ensuring the delivery of a just transition, as my colleague has said, through providing ways of dealing with it when the turf has to go, the Government took a hammer to it. Now it is changing its mind, which I welcome. We all make mistakes. I welcome that the Government is going to look at the issue. However, it is doing terrible damage to the climate change movement. I know that it is about health. I fully support the Government in relation to the elimination of smoky fuels. The Minister talked about evidence. I ask him to look at the analysis. I am looking forward to the publication of the more recent analysis that follows up on the census. I will be parochial and take Galway as an example. The last census listed the counties with the highest proportion of households using peat central heating. County Galway was third on the list, with 23% of households using peat for central heating. As my colleague has pointed out to me, that figure excludes the houses that are using peat with no central heating. The figure is astronomically high. We are utterly reliant on peat. I am only mentioning the one county that is third highest on the list. There are lots of other counties. No analysis was done, or thought given by anyone, as to how to deal with that. I come back the point about double messages being given all the time. I am on record as being against the carbon tax. I make absolutely no apology for it. It is a divisive tax and it does not serve us well in relation to climate change. I do not think my experience in County Galway can be described as being unique to Galway. I think people genuinely want to act in relation to climate change. The obstacles have come from successive Governments. Taking data centres as an example, I remember that in 2018 I was not familiar with data centres. The women working with me downloaded the policy document on data centres. I could not believe it. Perhaps the acting Chairman might have a different opinion from me when he is sitting as a Deputy. It is worth reading the document. It gives the thumbs-up to data centres, without even a consideration of the consequences for climate change and energy use.

That still has not been updated. We are telling people they cannot burn turf, the one thing they rely on, and we are giving them no alternative. On the other hand Government policy states that we should build as many data centres as we like. I recently spoke on this in a Sinn Féin motion on data centres. There are over 70 of them in Ireland, another eight are under construction and up to 30 more in the planning stages. As of September 2021, data centres take up 11% of electricity in Ireland.

I will return to the topic at hand. What is missing is leadership and a recognition that the people are ahead of us. There should be no division between neighbours or between city and county. We were in this together, in the truest sense, not like was said about Covid and the solidarity. We were together for a little while and we quickly departed from that. We used punitive methods and divide and conquer tactics among those who were vaccinated and those who were not. We are doing the same thing with climate change with a punitive carbon tax and stupidity when it comes to divide and conquer as opposed to a just transition, rewarding the people and giving them alternatives.

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