Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am also glad to get the opportunity to speak on this Bill, given how critical energy is now and will be in future and the actions we must take as a State and globally on renewable fuels, including for transport. I spoke to the Minister earlier about public transport. I talked about the climate action plan.

It is a no-brainer for the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. I am sure Deputy Eamon Ryan is the envy of other Ministers for climate change across Europe when he has the portfolio and all the power that goes along with being the Minister for Transport too.

Speaking of power, my party supports the Bill in principle but we have reservations, and not a little concern, about the power that it gives the Minister. It is very disappointing that we did not get pre-legislative scrutiny at the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. We will table amendments, as my two comrades have said, when it comes to Committee Stage. The granting of such power to the Minister demands equally powerful accountability. We want to make sure that the Minister is fully accountable to the Oireachtas in his holding and wielding of it. This is particularly so given the tricky juncture we are at now, with a war in Europe, with future threats to energy that might entail and, across the EU as well, with governments of the right establishing themselves in several countries and the potential consequences if they opt to not act in solidarity with the wider European family. This is particularly so, too, in the current Administration that is prone to silo thinking and is failing steadily on joined-up thinking, whether around the appalling bus service in north Kildare that is putting people back into cars or elsewhere.

I was speaking to the Minister earlier about young people who cannot rely on the bus service such as people living in Prosperous coming into Maynooth. If they cannot rely on the bus service and they cannot afford to buy an electric vehicle, although the grants might be good, they buy a banger of a car to get on the road. I spoke of how the rocketing costs of living and the scary costs of renting are leaving us short of teachers. We need joined-up thinking. We have women having to quit work because they cannot rely on the public transport to get them into work. We have the problems in our health service as well. These are, basically, all the things that make society work and can make or break a life day to day.

I have spoken today about how I realise that the Minister has his work cut out for him. He does not only have to listen to climate deniers across this side of the House; he also has a few in government too. That must be difficult for the Green Party but it illustrates the way, and perhaps the reasons, over ten years the Government has been slow to deliver on renewables. That slowness is shown in the failure to move people away from kerosene to heat their homes and from petrol to diesel in cars, although the Green Party had something to do with the fact that we have so many diesel cars on the road, but we are in a tricky situation where we are exposed and highly dependent on liquid fuel.

It has been recommended for years that we establish good gas storage, most recently in the energy security review, but that was not done either. We have a heck of a lot to do. The Bill gives the Minister a heck of a lot of powers to do it but, for us, accountability is key. We are very disappointed that there was not pre-legislative scrutiny. We will table amendments on Committee Stage and we hope that the Minister will look upon those.

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