Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Those 700 MW of power are real. The Deputy is correct in that no one should be in any way complacent or have a false optimism, because the challenge and scale of the changes is so large and they will not be easy to deliver. We do not give up. Resilience is part of what we need in this whole climate approach.

There are three real restrictions which are holding us back. One is in planning. We all know our planning system is not functioning or delivering for either the environment or for the development of our country, and that is why we are introducing significant legislative changes to make that work better.

The second is our people. Our economy is at absolute full throttle and is growing 8% a year. It is very difficult to get many of the people we need. Bus drivers alone, if I can give one example, are a constraint in respect of the switch to public transport. The availability of bus drivers is our biggest problem. We are pointing in the right direction and there are actions taking place. We have 8,000 apprenticeships, which is the biggest number ever, going into retrofitting and other industries to help us make it happen. It takes time but we are addressing the obstacles.

The biggest obstacle still is politics, to be honest. There are Deputies in this House, and I would not doubt any of those present, about whose commitment on this issue I would wonder. We all know we can go around the country to every council and into any debate here in this House, and when it comes to the actual changes we need to make, the real political consensus, sense of urgency and hard decisions are still politically difficult. That is one of the things we have to change.

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