Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are on the foot of 15 of the hottest years the planet has seen since records started. It is five minutes to midnight. We have to put the vested interest groups outside the door and start making real practical decisions that will make a difference. Although we are a small country, we can show clear leadership in this regard and that is what I expect from the Minister. I expect clear leadership without being influenced by vested interests.

I offer one example. The Minister covered this in his speech but the public sector spends approximately €600 million on energy. We have examples of best practice. In 2014 Tallaght hospital set out to save 18% of its energy use over three years and succeeded. This equated to €4.3 million or 18 acute hospital beds. Therefore, it is in the interests of other Ministers to work at this. The Minister referred to schools. There has been a compulsory energy monitoring programme in place in schools since January 2015 but unfortunately it has not worked. We cannot pile more and more work on top of principals without giving them the necessary resources. There are major opportunities throughout the public sector to reduce our energy, but the resources must be given in a real and practical way. I call on the Minister to look at the schools in a different way. The green flag system works well. Perhaps we should integrate it in some way.

Although we need to continue phasing out fossil fuels, we already have started to increase our coal and peat use for generation of electricity by 19.6%. That is totally unacceptable when we are talking about phasing out electricity generated by peat. Peat generates 9% of our electricity but counts for 25% of pollution from electricity. We cannot afford to wait until 2030. We need to move now. The sector has been subsidised by €130 million. We need to get on and do something about it. We need to plan for the closure far quicker and ensure that the employees have a future. We can look at how we can invest in that regard. The Government is putting in a subvention of €130 million per year. That money could be invested in alternative employment for the workers in those peat generation stations. Peat is of itself an important carbon sink. That has to be taken into consideration.

I am not convinced that biomass is the correct way to go. The question needs a little more research because we cannot generate that level of biomass within the State for the power stations. Are we talking about importing biomass? We need to take a close look at that.

We have to bite the bullet on Moneypoint. The Minister is going to have to say that we are going to close it. It is a tough and difficult decision but we have to plan for the closure of Moneypoint. Generating electricity from dirty coal is no longer sustainable or acceptable and vested interests must not be allowed to rule or interfere in such judgments. With regard to showing some kind of leadership, climate experts have calculated that in order for the world to meet the Paris Agreement targets, we will have to leave the majority, that is, 80%, of all existing discovered fossil fuel reserves in the ground. That is scientific fact. I suggest Ireland should show some leadership in this regard. We currently invest €133 million in oil companies through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. I ask the Minister to suggest to his Cabinet colleagues that we withdraw that €133 million that is invested in oil companies drilling for fossil fuels. We should take a moral decision and not invest in those areas any longer.

The one thing we have really failed on is transport. I very much look forward to seeing the Minister, Deputy Ross, in the House and talking about his brief rather than about judges. Transport emissions are still higher than they were in 1990 and there seems to be no leadership in regard to transport reduction and changing the model of public transport.

With regard to solar panels, we need a rooftop revolution, as it was described in one e-mail to me. There are many householders, farmers and businesses who could install PV panels to generate electricity with very little negative impact. However, we need a guaranteed payment for microgeneration, including the solar service.

The Minister mentioned the clean air strategy. We cannot allow the move to diesel fuel to continue. Prior to the budget, the Department of Finance indicated that the differential between petrol and diesel is too great. We will have vested interests that will knock at the Minister's door to say they cannot change this and that we have to give the benefit to diesel. Given the way we have done this, 50% of all car purchases are now diesel cars.