Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the remarks of Deputy O'Sullivan. All Deputies have spoken about school transport and the difficulties in that regard. We are all aware of anomalies that show up. Last, year it affected Annagassan in my constituency. There is still an issue relating to the Bush Post Primary School, where people are technically a fraction too close to the school and do not have a right to school transport even though it is their nearest school. Obviously, none of this makes sense as we try to make the necessary moves on climate action. We do not need to have people being forced into cars because they are not being given the choice needed.

I do not think the Taoiseach will be shocked at my revisiting the issue of communal heating systems and Carlinn Hall. We need to move from a feasibility study relating to shallow geothermal to something that improves the situation for those people who have been under the cosh in the context of ridiculous gas bills.

In the context of the real wins, there has been reference to wind power across the board. The pieces have been moved in respect of planning as there is a move from things being developer led. We await the designated maritime area plans, DMAPs, and the outworkings but we need to ensure first that we have the likes of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority and the planning infrastructure resourced as much as possible. We cannot have hold-ups in this regard. In the case of onshore wind, there are difficulties relating to the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, 3 auction as there is a belief there will not be enough players on board. That is a failure that needs to be addressed straight away. We can talk about being a wind superpower but if we do not get these pieces in place, it will not happen.

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