Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was amused to listen to the simplistic caricature of Government policy on the energy challenge from my fellow county man. It is important that this House realises that our emissions are already 60% higher than the rest of Europe, we are the most fossil fuel-dependent in Europe and we have the highest import dependency in Europe. We need to undertake transformational change within our energy system and the route for that is not through cutting taxes on fuel. The route to that is the sort of transformation to build renewable energy throughout the country and take advantage of our offshore capability.

The long-term requirement is to end our dependence on fossil fuels entirely. There is a unilateral view in the House that we have a climate emergency and this is a shared target but to listen to the prescriptions we have just heard underlines how there is a real risk as we try to embark on very serious transformational change that bad politics, which has damaged this country in the past, of the sort we have just heard articulated, could again do untold damage to the people of this country and their prospects.

We are facing into a period when transformational change has to occur not just because of the war in Europe or the changes that have been wrought by the pandemic in the way people approach challenges but because the planet is telling us that we cannot go on. Yesterday, we were presented with the citizens' assembly findings on biodiversity. We know the challenges there that must be encountered. They require us to make very significant changes in the way we live. We must put everything we demand of Government regardless of which Government is in place in the context that this is the direction in which we are now travelling. It is appropriate that the Minister of State responding to this is the Minister of State with responsibility for the circular economy because that goes to the heart of what we must do.

We need to understand that the choices we make about the materials we choose have consequences for the planet we live in. The way in which we use them, the efficiency with which we use them and the length of time they are kept in use through repair and restoration are crucial. Our habit of discarding more materials and using more plastics than other countries must change.

We are at a time of very significant change where we will be asking our citizens over the next decade, irrespective of who has the privilege of being in government, to make major changes in the way they live. What is important about today's legislation is that solidarity is at the heart of it. Extraordinary profits have been made as a result of the war by energy companies. This is about taking back those profits to help households and small businesses to make the changes they need to make. Fairness is crucial as we approach this period of transformational change over the next decade and beyond. This is an important piece of the jigsaw.

I agree with the approach that we stay within the context of the European regulation on this. Many in the House have said we should be taking more aggressive positions but that fails to take into account that we, as a small country, are reliant on a consistent approach across member states. I have been around long enough to remember when an attempt was made by a Minister to take an independent line which resulted in long queues at the petrol pumps when the energy simply could not be got in this country. That is the reality small countries face. We are fortunate to be a member of the European Union which has solidarity at its heart. This is a measure which shows that the European Union is capable of responding to this challenge.

As I said earlier, it is really important to recognise that we in politics need to catch up with the transformational change that must occur. The old way was to demand more for everything - more investment and more services. We also need to think about using resources smarter and we do not have a good reputation. I recently pointed out in the House that we do not right-size the occupation of homes. Some 90% of people in my age bracket are in homes that are excessive for their needs and yet we do not have a system for encouraging mobility to right-size and free up resources so we would not be making such a call on resources as we do.

We will have this important debate over the coming years about how we make transformational change to confront the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis and other consequences such as migration. I am concerned that we might conduct that in a mood of blame and finger-pointing which has been too much a feature of this debate. Instead, we need to have it built on understanding collaboration and co-operation. The Clarion call that came from the chairperson of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss yesterday was that this is an opportunity for politics to show that we can make serious change and that we can mobilise people to come with us on what will be a difficult journey of change. This House is poorly served by some of the same simplistic analysis that goes on about what we need to do in the energy sector and what the appropriate responses from Government to the sort of challenge that we now face are. I congratulate the Government on bringing this forward but it is only one timid step in the direction of very substantial change we need to make in the coming years.

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