Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to take this opportunity to discuss the Bill to strengthen the State's ability to manage stocks in the event of a curtailment of oil supplies. I listened to the Minister’s assurances that no such shortage is imminent. Indeed, I agree it is important that debates in the House on energy security do not give rise to any sense of panic but it is inevitable that at some stage fossil fuels will no longer be available to us to further exploit. It is also clearly in the context of the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia that we are having the debate. That has made us all acutely aware about the risks to our energy security and fuel security. It is both in the context of the climate catastrophe and in the context of that brutal war that we are having this debate. With that in mind, I look forward to further engaging with the Minister on the Bill and on other measures to make more durable the various sectors of everyday life that are most vulnerable to fluctuations in the supply of fossil fuels and energy insecurity.

The Bill offers some welcome clarity around the powers of the Minister, and how quickly they can be deployed to control the supply and distribution of fuel in an emergency. The Bill will also put all aspects of oil emergency planning on a statutory footing and will establish a register of oil suppliers to ensure fast communication to retailers, which is positive.

We are all conscious that, as part of our EU and International Energy Agency obligations, NORA should maintain approximately 85 days of strategic stocks. That stock holding is expected to be at 90 days, I understand, by the end of this month. Without adequate contingency plans, that is not a long enough time.

It is all well and good to protect and preserve fossil fuels for emergency use. Of course, our priority must be reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, but also in the interim insulating people from market-driven volatility on international wholesale energy markets. In that regard, we in Labour have previously raised with the Minister the prospect of the Government engaging in a temporary nationalisation of the Corrib Gas Field. I renew my call on him and his Government colleagues to give that serious consideration. It does not require any additional legislation. It is a matter that does not need to be dealt with within this legislation because legislation is in place from the 1970s giving Government that power. We believe that temporary nationalisation of the Corrib field should form part of any contingency plan to mitigate supply line disruptions. It would mitigate supply line disruptions by providing a healthy supply, a guarantee of supply and, crucially, allowing for price control. I have spoken previously about the anomaly that gas produced locally in the Corrib gas field is still subject to price determination by reference to international markets. As a result, we see the owners of the field gaining what one might describe as "windfall profits" because, for them, the cost of production has not increased. It has not been affected directly by the war in Ukraine, yet they are benefiting from the international setting of prices in this way.

Of course, we appreciate that the best contingency plan to mitigate supply lines of imported fuel being interrupted is to develop our own indigenous clean energy sources and we believe that much more should be done by Government on that. This Bill, and the context of a war, should not be allowed to distract from the much more pressing need to realise our potential as a world leader in clean energy production. We need in Ireland to rapidly accelerate our efforts towards deployment of onshore wind, offshore wind and solar capacity. The Government has ambitions to do that but we need to see delivery of that. We need to see serious investment in energy efficiency and in the development of renewable capacity. We need to see an expanding interconnection with European energy suppliers and deepening internal market integration. We need to break the hold of the fossil fuel oligarchs and magnates to make Ireland the renewable superpower that the Minister thinks we can, and we all want to, be but we need to see a greater sense of urgency in the delivery of that objective.

Of course, one of the most versatile ways to avoid chaos in the transport sector in the event of an oil crisis is to make more accessible the options of walking, cycling and travelling in electric vehicles or vehicles powered by green hydrogen. We discussed this to some extent earlier in the debate on the climate action plan.

We are all conscious of the embeddedness of oil and other fossil fuels within transport. The Minister pointed out that transport was one of the most difficult sectors in which to achieve reductions in emissions. We know how heavily dependent Ireland is on imported fossil fuels for transport, as well as for energy generation and for heating. They comprise 80% of fossil fuels at present. That is a chilling context within which we have this debate.

Part of the plan to create durable systems to withstand inevitable difficulties with oil supply must involve that key transition to modes of transport not vulnerable to shortages. I welcomed the report this morning of the new EV charging measures to remove or at least reduce so-called "range anxiety" to encourage more people to make the shift from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles. I was glad in that context to read in the climate action plan what was set out as part of the avoid, shift, improve framework. Welcome measures include the setting of a target of a 50% increase in daily active travel journeys and a 130% increase in daily public transport journeys. The improved targets that set percentage shares for low-fossil public and private vehicles, including the goal that 100% of new car registrations should be EVs, are also welcome. We have seen impressive increases in the take-up of EVs but we are still not coming close to the targets set by Government.

Delivery is key on this issue. At local level, every week in my constituency, which is also the Minister's, I hear from constituents who want to make the move to electric vehicles but who do not have a driveway or any accessible charging point they can use to ensure they would be able to use an EV. I reiterate my call for better provision of EV charging, not only on motorway networks as the Minister outlined earlier but also for charging on streets where houses do not have driveways or where there are apartment blocks. At present these people do not have access to any public or private charging point. The lack of such charging points is preventing people from making the necessary move to EVs. It would be positive to see greater movement on it this year.

I have engaged closely with Dublin City Council on this and I am constantly told that new strategies are being rolled out. Again, we are just not seeing delivery. In the Portobello area, there is one public charging point and it is always in use. This is the area where I live. No house has a driveway. Many people in this area who need cars want to make a move to electric vehicles. They are prevented, or at least discouraged, from doing so because of the lack of charging facilities.

There are lofty public transport goals in the climate action plan, including progress on continuing the programmes of work; advancing BusConnects in five cities; MetroLink; DART+; the Cork area commuter rail programme; PSO electric bus fleet procurement, including depot charging upgrades; and investment in passenger freight rail. These are flagship infrastructure projects. The Labour Party is glad progress is being made on these. We emphasise the potential for climate action and the transport revolution to raise standards of living in Ireland by creating new well-paid unionised jobs in these sectors, thus providing for the all-important just transition we speak about as a party of the left and the party of the trade union movement.

We reiterate our call for a widening of access to public transport and the introduction of a €9 climate ticket to incentivise greater use of public transport in towns and cities in all our communities. We believe this initiative should have been undertaken by the Government in the budget to encourage greater usage of public transport and to address the cost-of-living crisis by reducing public transport fares and transport costs from many families and households.

Other smaller changes are required to support all of those who wish to make the shift to public transport. In our constituency, Labour Party Councillors, Dermot Lacey, Kevin Donoghue and, in particular, Mary Freehill, have been working on small but significant ways to make public transport more accessible. Councillor Mary Freehill has done work with the age-friendly working group in the Kimmage and Rathmines area, for example, seeking to make bus stops more accessible. Many bus stops in Dublin lack seating. It may sound like a small thing but when I raise this at meetings with local residents I find it is something that older people in the community in particular find a real hindrance to using buses. There is a simple bus pole and often there is no shelter or no seating. This can be a disincentive for people who want to use public transport but, as they have mobility issues, are put off by the prospect of having to stand for long periods at a bus stop. For those who find it difficult to avail of such facilities for reason of age or disability, it is a disincentive to using buses.

Councillor Freehill, having investigated the matter, learned the primary obstacle to the NTA installing seating at bus stops, which was the simple request she made, is a refusal by users of the advertising panels at bus stops to cede space. The company that runs the advertising believes that putting in seating, even where there are panels and the facility to do so, would diminish the scope for advertising. In addition to electronic advertisements being a problematic addition to the public landscape, the fact they would take precedence over access for ordinary citizens shows the need for a readjustment of priorities. I appeal to the Minister to address this point.

As a cyclist it would be remiss of me to omit from my contribution the awesome power of cycling as a tool in the fight against energy insecurity and climate change. I am glad some promising bicycle infrastructure programmes are starting to come onstream. It is promising, for example, to see Dublin City Council rolling out such an extensive network of cycle lanes across the city. That is welcome and long overdue. We in the Labour Party have long called for the extension of the cycle to work tax scheme to allow parents to purchase bikes for their children. We call it a bike to school scheme. We have costed it at €1.4 million. We believe it would have a significant impact in encouraging the uptake of cycling among children and younger people.

The problem is the current tax scheme does not support those out of work or those who are self-employed to purchase a bike nor does it offer supports for parents to buy bikes for their children. We would allocate additional funding through the social welfare allowance additional needs payment to provide grants of up to €250 to support those who want to buy a bike but who are not covered by the cycle to work scheme at present.

Alongside this we are calling for the Government to carry out a comprehensive review of how the tax system could be better used to incentivise the uptake of cycling, e-bikes and cargo bikes by homes and businesses. The cycle to work scheme has been a huge success but it is about how we can expand the take-up. This is the question. I hope the Minister will take these suggestions on board in the spirit of constructive engagement.

As we are discussing the volatility of the energy market and the effects of external factors, in particular, the war in Ukraine, I want to express my sympathy to those killed this morning in the attack near Kyiv. It is another appalling loss of life. We have seen so much loss of life since Vladimir Putin commenced his brutal invasion, which is an affront to our values of democracy, justice and respect for life. While it is our friends in Ukraine and neighbouring countries who are suffering the worst consequences of Putin's awful invasion, it is also a reminder of how vulnerable our way of life is to the whims of despots and warmongers.

When we debate Bills such as this it bears repeating why we are debating them and what the context is. Climate change and conflict around the world are strongly interlinked. The protection of our fuel systems and the protection of fuel and energy security in Ireland is closely related to the protection of our peace and democratic values. None of this should be taken for granted. Part of our resistance to dictators such as Putin must involve showing that we are serious about building our resilience so that not only Ireland but all European countries and all democratic countries will not be held to ransom by those who seek to meddle or interfere with our energy supply, or to interfere at a much more substantial level with our country and our way of life, as we have seen in Ukraine.

I look forward to further engaging with the Minister and the Department on the Bill. I reiterate that the context in which we are debating the Bill is one that none of us could have envisaged a year ago. We all thought it would not happen and now we are 11 months into a brutal war. Of course it is raising all of these questions about fuel security and, more fundamentally, about the security of all of our countries and peace in Europe. It is in this serious and depressing context that we debate the legislation. The Labour Party will support it because we recognise the need for it. Without wanting to raise any panic it is important that contingencies should be made. We appeal to the Minister to consider other contingencies, such as the nationalisation of Corrib and, of course, the important climate action plan measures on transport and so many other ways in which we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

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