Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I think Deputy Crowe is in a committee so I will keep going and if I use the eight minutes so be it. I will begin by adding my voice to those of other Members across the House, such as Deputies Howlin, Gannon and Haughey, who made strong statements about the dire situation in the Horn of Africa. We are beholden as a Parliament, a democracy and as a developed country to do everything we can that is within our power. I think the Minister of State will agree and I think the Taoiseach agrees also.

I commend Deputy Howlin on his strong speech with regard to the news today that Russia has essentially made 52 Members of the Oireachtas personae non grata. I do not know who these 52 are, but it is outrageous that another state would treat a sovereign nation such as Ireland in this way. I want to add my voice to Deputy Howlin’s condemnation.

The Taoiseach in his statement mentioned COP27 and I raised it with in during Questions on Policy or Legislation yesterday. He showed leadership on the international stage in showing how we must deal with climate change. He said we do not have a minute to lose and I absolutely agree with him, as I think Members across this House also do. The Government has shown leadership at home and the Oireachtas has generally shown leadership at home. I chair the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action and as best we can we have sought to achieve a consensus approach to what is necessary. This Oireachtas can be proud that we agreed quite overwhelmingly to bring in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. Nobody said it was going to be easy and we have set ourselves an incredibly difficult target of reducing emissions by 51%, based on a 2018 baseline, by 2030. We are finding now as we move into the review of the climate action plan in the next few weeks just how hard it is. If you look at the numbers across every sector, such as agriculture, energy, transport or any other sector, the numbers do not lie, and they make it difficult.

We are in a situation where we have set ourselves ambitious targets but are in danger of getting caught up in the rhetoric and perhaps patting ourselves on the back for setting such ambitious targets. What matters is achieving them. When the climate action plan comes out in a few weeks’ time, it will show a refined path towards 2030, but there will be a lot in there that will be quite difficult. All Members of this House have experience in their communities of where climate action is difficult because if you take a simple example of how we use our road space, we will have to reallocate a lot of our road space away from private vehicles to modes that can carry more people and that can do it in a more sustainable ways, such as buses, cycle lanes and wider footpaths. Any time you try to do this in any community in this country there is uproar because you are saying to the community that what they know and understand will change and that it has to change.

I fear that we are not doing a good job as an Oireachtas in communicating why we need climate action at the local level. We have put ourselves in a position where any of these issues in any town, village or city in Ireland can be used as a wedge issue and can be exploited. Ultimately, if that is the approach we take, we will not achieve the emissions cuts that we need to achieve. It beholds all Members of this House, as well as the Upper House, to figure out how we can do the community engagement to achieve climate action at the local level because it is not easy.

During the week, an important climate project was announced in my neck of the woods and it is linked to the broader European agenda. Members will know about the trans-european transport network, TEN-T, across Europe. In Limerick, the Minister announced just this week that we are going to reopen the Limerick to Foynes railway line.

This is an historic step in Irish transport. The Acting Chair knows haulage better than perhaps anyone in the House and I would be interested in chatting with her about this. Much of the haulage that is currently on our roads can be put on rail and carried more sustainably. Dublin Port is fairly choked with traffic. Just as there is for Rosslare, Cork and Waterford ports, there is an opportunity for Shannon Foynes Port to develop as a cargo port. This rail project will, in time, be seen as a significant shift in how we do haulage.

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