Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I am pleased to conclude this very useful debate. At a debate some days ago I made the point that there had hardly been a frost all year, but my wife pointed out that night that it was freezing. Looking out the windows of the House during this debate, I saw a few flakes of snow falling, so one must be careful when speaking on this issue.

I want to return to one other point I made in that recent debate, namely, that we as a country have performed well when we responded to strategic threats or problems. When we achieve political consensus around the direction we want to take, we work well. I cited the example of the 1950s when we moved from being a closed economy to an open economy. A person e-mailed me later to agree with that point and to state we made a similar strategic change in the late 1980s when we moved from being a basket-case economy to the Celtic tiger economy. The person made the point that while this was true, the circumstances were different from today because there was a clear social and economic catastrophe which compelled us to action in each instance. Climate change is a difficult issue because while the consequences are potentially much more catastrophic, they are not with us today. It is snowing today while we are talking about climate change.

As Senator Donohoe noted, how we represent the public good and respond to the threat before that threat is widely known are crucial questions. Senator O'Malley pointed out that this will affect the policy decisions we must make in the next year to two years because of European Union proposals which I cited earlier. Those policy decisions will primarily be around the issues of energy use, food production, transport, planning and the taxation measures to which Senator Donohoe referred.

Although there are myriad different areas where the Government is taking action, I will refer first to the area of electricity generation, in particular with regard to Senator O'Toole's concerns on the possibility of the privatisation of the transmission grid, an issue we raised in committee today. I do not know of any party in the Houses which is in favour of the privatisation of the transmission grid and do not believe any individual Senator or Deputy is in favour. If so, I would love to hear them say it. In fact, not a single economic commentator I know is calling for this. I do not see it as an issue because no-one is considering privatising transmission assets.

The grid is a difficult and sensitive issue in certain parts of the country. To achieve our renewable electricity targets and bring in low carbon technology, we will need to develop a grid that supplies and supports this, which will be difficult and will require us to see the benefits down the line when there will be different consequences.

Members referred to food security and the agricultural implications. There is a connection between food security and energy security. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Trevor Sargent, informed me recently of the fascinating statistic that it takes 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food. Our food is dependent on the availability of cheap oil for fertilisers, pesticides and the transport systems engaged in production. Reducing our use of oil is as important for our food industry as for our climate change interests.

Transport is also a key issue. I echo Senator O'Malley's comments and ask whether what we are doing is working and whether even it is attractive to us. To my mind, it is not. There is the potential for a much better system using different planning and following a different model. This requires change but it will not be easy because some will say they do not like the change required. It is a question of whether as politicians we have the ability to show a lead to our people by providing that change.

I commend Senator Donohoe on his comments on the area of taxation, which is one aspect of the issue, although not the only one, as noted by Senator Boyle. I listened with interest to Senator Donohoe's arguments, as a Fine Gael Senator, about the possibility of the introduction of a carbon tax. These issues will be centre-stage during the next year. We have a year within which to translate the proposals — for a general 20% European target, which is a 16% target here, to reduce climate change emissions — into real change in each of the crucial areas of transport, agriculture, planning and energy generation. It will not be easy to do so but it is in our interests to take on the proposals in a bold and ambitious manner.