Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Connolly.

There is no doubt that we are in need of a just transition in order to ensure a better quality of life for everyone in this country and across the globe.

If we care about the future of this planet, we need to transition to a zero-carbon economy either immediately or as quickly as we can. The effects of climate change are already being felt across this planet and it will not be long until we are fully feeling them here.

We need to do all we can to stop this process before it is too late or, at this stage, to slow it down because solving the problem is no longer possible. However, we cannot do this at anyone’s expense. The average citizen should not be taking the hit for this transition. Large corporations have been the biggest culprits in causing this climate devastation. They have a debt to pay to the planet and its people, especially those from the global south, who have felt the greatest effect.

Unfortunately, the transition process in Ireland has been overwhelmingly negative. Extraordinary sacrifices have been made by the likes of peat workers, more than 1,000 of whom lost their jobs and received no support from the Government afterwards. Despite this, the Government wonders why people in rural Ireland are so against climate policies. As Hall and Oates might have put it: you are out of touch and we are out of time. We need to ensure that all those who lose their jobs due to transition are offered support and replacement jobs immediately or that something is put in place to make that happen. Until this is addressed, the transition process will only become synonymous with job loss and lower living standards. We do not have time to delay this any further.

I support the Just Transition Alliance’s call to establish a national just transition commission. This would help in creating replacement jobs and in creating a more sustainable society. We need to protect rural communities in Donegal and in the midlands in particular who have experienced the greatest loss by ensuring job retention and a high standard of living. The problem is that climate change is quickly becoming associated with loss, whether the loss of jobs, of communities or of the ability to live pretty equally. That is not what it should mean for people but there is a real danger that we are making this happen and losing people right away.

I also support the Just Transition Alliance’s call for a strategy that ensures a maximum retention of key energy assets in public ownership and the call to officially designate energy as an essential public good. We cannot achieve our aim of a just transition without the public ownership of energy assets. Keeping these assets in public ownership will ensure greater power and greater accountability for a sustainable transition. The west coast of Ireland is going to be the location for the solutions, and rightly so, but they will be handed over to private bodies. At best, we will gain some tax revenue from them. That is the best we can hope for.

It is also important that it be a core policy priority of Government to guarantee access to affordable energy. We can only ensure this by making sure that energy is treated as an essential public good like drinking water and education. We need to live up to the just transition pledge that we signed up to at COP26. The time for talking is over; we need action now.

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