Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I know Sinn Féin's bona fides in climate change is exemplary.

The presentation of the narrative by Deputy Bacik is to characterise the Government as being somehow not in favour of measures to address climate change. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bottom line in terms of the climate action plan and the agenda ahead of us is that we are fundamentally committed to renewables and investment in them.

The Deputy mentioned a private application and litigation relating to it. That is not a Government initiative but a private sector initiative. People are entitled to take initiatives. The Government has announced an initiative on energy security. I say respectfully that it would be irresponsible of the Government not to act on the advice we have received in respect of the energy vulnerability of the country. We need sufficiency in renewables and the capacity to withstand any interruptions to our energy supply. This is a serious issue. I would not play it down or understate the energy security dimension to the decision taken by the Minister and the advice he received in respect of it. On another day, if things went wrong, there would be loud choruses in this House asking why decisions on energy security were not taken.

On renewables, everything we can do to accelerate offshore wind energy will be done. Previous Governments involving Fianna Fáil and other parties led the revolution on onshore wind in this country. We have a good record in respect of onshore wind and the integration of renewables with the electricity grid. It is a good story for Ireland at European level and elsewhere. The challenge now is to do it for offshore wind. We will do everything we can to accelerate renewables and endeavour to get offshore wind farms built as quickly as possible. The Government has already had a series of meetings about substantial investment in the electricity grid, which will be required. It will be of a significantly higher scale than what we invested over the previous five years under price review 5. Price review 6 will come close to doubling what was spent on the grid in the past five years.

On biodiversity, we have radically transformed the situation for the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Its budget has been doubled over the past four years. There has been a substantial increase in the numbers of staff. The Government is going to continue with that agenda.

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