Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to participate in the debate. I took careful note of the opening statement of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the stretching targets that he highlighted in the climate action plan. I have some questions about certain sectors. I will go through some of them and the Minister of State might reply to me in writing.

I will first consider the transport sector and the adoption of electric cars. We are now starting to see the pinch points in respect of electric car consumption. Range anxiety is building because of the lack of charging infrastructure in the country. Costs are rising. The Green Party was at the forefront of ensuring that hybrid cars were not included in the programme for Government, which was a mistake. Where are we going in the worldwide production of electric vehicles? We know that we will not get close to the target of 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. There also issues relating to the minerals that are produced in electric cars and the ethics around the harvesting of the likes of lithium and cobalt, particularly in countries where child labour is being used. Has Ireland taken any steps to try to understand those considerations?

The local authority in Waterford has announced a plan to provide an additional 12 on-street charging points in the city in the coming year. The rate of adoption of electric cars in the city is running at 15% per annum, which is the same as the national rate. Perhaps the Minister of State will come back to me on some of those points. Is it realistic to suppose that people who live outside urban areas can easily adopt electric vehicles? There are issues in respect of the costs involved and range anxiety. Those people cannot access suitable and frequent public transport alternatives. It seems that the climate agenda is trying to direct our rural populations into urban areas over the coming 20 years. Is that the way things are going?

The Minister mentioned electricity generation and the great opportunities being presented to Ireland. He also spoke of the significant potential to develop offshore wind. I will speak about the offshore wind options that are being surveyed off the south coast at the moment, specifically in my own area in County Waterford, adjacent to the Copper Coast. A number of farm licences are being considered for wind farms totalling anywhere between 50 and 70 pylon turbines that are fixed to the seabed. All those pylons will stand at a height of 350 m, which is far higher than the Spire in Dublin. I am told by people in the maritime industry in the area that the shelf that runs along that coastline dips below 60 m close to two miles offshore and, therefore, these pylons cannot be fixed. I would like to understand, because we have had no clarity yet, where these pylons are going to be situated. How close to the shore are they going to be? In respect of a just transition, I will mention the potential amenity damage. What compensation will be offered? I understand that for some of these farms, a community dividend of between €15 million and €18 million is being considered over the lifetime of the project, payable in the first 15 years of a 25-year project. I do not see the sense in that. If wind turbines are spinning for 25 years, the community needs to be compensated. It is not fair to say that 1.5% of the overall investment of more than €1 billion is adequate to compensate the coastal communities that are going to be impacted by the harnessing of wind power.

Contracts are being drawn up for the provision of wind energy. The regulatory body has not been activated and the delay in doing so is difficult to understand. Where is the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, now? Negotiations are taking place with wind energy providers at the moment because surveys of the sites would not be happening if that were not the case. I would like to ask some questions about the contract terms. Has the State secured itself in respect of the future spot rate at which electricity will be charged to the Irish grid as opposed to the rate that will apply for electricity that will be exported from Ireland? Is it the case that Ireland could find itself paying more for the electricity produced on our shores than it would pay on the open French or German markets where electricity is exported? Has consideration been given to including in the contracts any lever or pivot to allow the State to buy out the wind farms at any point in the 25-year term? There are many reasons the State might wish to make such a purchase. Is such a clause included in the contracts being devised at the moment?

I will move to the agricultural sector. The Coillte deal with Gresham House has been referenced a number of times. The proposal appears to be for upwards of 250,000 acres to be privately taken in by Coillte and Gresham House. That would in some cases require Irish landholders to sell their holdings. Some €2.1 billion in State support and subsidies are potentially on offer to Gresham House. Those supports and subsidies should go into the rural and regional economy. They should go to support Irish farm growers and not to funds on Threadneedle Street and Bond Street.

The Minister of State might be interested to know that Coillte achieved 110% of its target for the processing of licensing applications in 2022. I am sure it was happy about that. By contrast, it only achieved 80% of its private felling targets and 60% of its private afforestation targets. Our private growers cannot get their forestry licences approved. At the same time, a new forestry programme is being talked about by the Department and nothing as yet is being considered for the ash dieback programme, which many growers are availing of. They need to understand the impact before they can go again. I echo the calls made by others in the House. I am opposed to the idea that State subsidies would go to support UK or other foreign equity firms investing in our domestic forestry sector. An ample number of growers and farmers in this country are prepared to grow forests if they are given access to subsidies and licences. That is not happening at the moment.

There is also an issue around multi-seed pasture land. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, was in Waterford approximately 14 months ago.

I thought he was coming down to review the great work being done by the Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, into multiseed sward analysis which has been going on for five years. At the time, he did not have the time to look at it, unfortunately. I recommend a film on Netflix to the Minister of State, entitled Kiss the Ground. He may have seen it. It is narrated by the American actor, Woodie Harrelson. It talks about desertification, which is an ongoing climate challenge right across the world. Largely it has to do with the tilling and spraying of land which is stripping topsoil and ultimately killing the microbiome underneath. A great deal of work is being done here, particularly in WIT, on multiseed pasture land which it appears could remedy part of this problem and return the microbiome. It could also make additional inputs in regard to carbon sequestration. We do not have a policy in place to incentivise farmers to move into these systems. Will the Minister of State take those issues on board in the climate action plan? I would appreciate it if he addressed the questions I have asked. While we need stretching targets, we also need just transition, with the emphasis on the word "just".

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