Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Durkan is correct that all Departments have to play a role in climate action, but obviously the ones that have to play the biggest role are the Departments of Transport; Environment, Climate and Communications; Agriculture, Food and the Marine; and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as those represent the areas that account for almost all the emissions. Of course, the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Finance, and Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, also have significant roles to play. I agree we need to get the balance right. We need to take climate action but not in a way that causes people to lose their jobs or see their living standards fall, or impacts adversely on rural development. That is why the Government is trying to marry climate action with economic opportunity. Great economic opportunities arise from climate action, in particular the ambition I set out for Ireland to become energy independent through developing our solar, offshore and onshore wind, interconnection, batteries, green fertiliser, green hydrogen and all those new industries we can develop, import substitution and export. That is the vision we are working to press forward with.

On the matter of the nature restoration law raised by Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, we all appreciate the need to protect nature, to restore biodiversity loss and allow nature to regrow. We know how quickly nature can recover if it is allowed to regrow. The EU nature restoration law is still a proposal at this stage. As I said previously in the House, there are aspects of it that I believe go too far, particularly when it comes to taking agricultural land out of use for food production against the wishes of farmers. There are also potential impacts on urban areas which, if the law was applied to the letter, would make it much harder for grass pitches to become all-weather pitches and could place restrictions on people doing what they want with their own front and back gardens. There are some very far-reaching proposals. The Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, has been very clear that farmers should not be compelled to do anything and should be remunerated and rewarded if they do. I agree with that approach.

I encourage people to engage with the debate tomorrow in a productive way and suggest how the proposals can be improved, and what compromises can be made, to make sure the proposed law is fit for purpose. We do not yet have an agreed text. It is thought that could be ready for the Council of Ministers' meeting at Luxembourg on 20 June. At that point, there will be trilogue with the European Parliament in July leading to potential ratification by the end of the year, giving us two years to prepare a national restoration plan. We need an impact assessment. How this proposed law would impact on us economically and socially is also important. At European Parliament level, there will be negative votes from both the agriculture and fisheries committees, which are significant.

Aviation makes up 2% or 3% of our emissions. We are an island nation so we rely on aviation for connectivity in a way other countries do not.

I am not sure what percentage of the 2% the private jets make up. I do not know what the figure is but I imagine it is quite small. Banning them outright could have negative impacts on investment and employment. Certainly, if a CEO or a chairperson from an IDA client company is coming in, I do not think we can say to them that this is the only country in Europe where they cannot land their jet but they can continue to invest here and employ thousands of people-----

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