Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to say a few words about this in the short time that I have. In my mind, just transition has been explained by Deputy Leddin and others as doing something in society that is correct and right to make sure that our communities grow and that there is enterprise in them. I agree with all of that. We should have more resilient communities but we need to transition to that and we cannot just do it overnight. There are some things we must take into account. Much has been spoken about the turf regulations that the Minister of State will bring in during October. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to consider all of the local authority houses in the State that rely on turf to heat their homes, to have hot water and to cook. Will the Minister of State consider how quickly he can provide the funding to the local authorities to retrofit these houses so that they have actually transitioned from solid fuel to air-to-water, and the cost of that?

Take the electric vehicles we are putting into this country. We are encouraging people to buy these cars. I know of one man who sold the electric car he bought last year on the basis that there is no infrastructure of any means in place for him to charge his car. Basically, the biggest issue of all is that he cannot put in a charger at home because the ESB will not connect the proposed charging point directly to the meter out the back due to the distance to his electricity meter. That kind of stuff has got to stop.

The deep retrofit programme, which has been announced, is still not in place. People cannot avail of it. Surveys have been carried out but we are not getting to do the work. Another issue that keeps arising with the retrofit scheme is the quality of the materials we are using, if they are actually fit for purpose in a country like ours where we have huge variations and wet weather and if the external insulation will stand the test of time. Are we creating problems? Reports have been prepared on that. That type of thing is truly something where we could be walking ourselves into an environmental disaster rather than into a place where we are saving our planet.

We have had discussions on public transport. It needs to be improved upon and it needs to be provided for everybody if we are to have a just transition.

We must make sure, for instance, that the railway line from Claremorris up to Athenry is put in place. We are doing a rail review at the moment. I believe, however, that there are actually things that can be done if we are really serious about providing public transport rather than taxing people who have to use their cars because they have no other way of going to work.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle will tell the Minister that if he listens to Galway Bay FM, or the national traffic reports, he will always hear about Bóthar na dTreabh in Galway. The reason that is blocked up is because people have to travel by car from the east of the county to work in the city and back out again in the evenings. And what is wrong? We cannot build a bus lane from Claregalway into the city. We have been talking about it since 2007 and we still have not got around to actually building it. Everybody wants to do it but it is not being done. If we are really and truly fair about just transition, we need to act and set out a detailed plan.

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