Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

No matter what the Minister of State does, there will be flooding in the future in various towns and villages. That is so because climate change is a reality. We must challenge those who deny that reality every time they open their mouths. Such denials give solace to those who wish to continue putting further investment into developments that very much damage our society. We cannot claim to be taking action on climate change while accommodating special interests, such as allowing Moneypoint to continue to operate for another five years or for peat-burning stations to remain operational as a result of the economic impact of their closure. We cannot continue to invest the amount of money we are putting into roads and motorways when we know that emissions relating to fossil fuels are damaging the environment. I stood with my neighbours, many of them elderly, in February 2002 as we watched belongings and mementoes flowing into the River Dodder and out to sea. There is nothing more heartbreaking than to lose, for example, photographs of husbands and children who have passed away. We cannot prevent this happening again anywhere in the country but we can show leadership on climate change. It is no accident that we had hurricane winds this week in Ireland given that the sea temperature has risen by 2° Celsius. We might not have another hurricane next year or the year after, but we can be certain we will experience the same at some point and that it will happen more often. That is down to climate change, notwithstanding the denials of Deputies Danny and Michael Healy-Rae.

The Minister of State has a great heart. I saw him interviewed on television when he was fighting the brave battle in Athlone. We all can fight those battles in our own communities, but we must also have a larger vision. Unfortunately, there was loss of life in this country on Monday, something which occurs on a much larger scale in Third World countries. When flooding happens in Pakistan and India, for example, one incident may result in as many as 800 deaths. If we are not prepared to show leadership in meeting the challenges we face in this regard, we should not be in politics. We must stop bowing down to the vested interest groups. Instead, we must challenge them with scientific facts. We must win the argument, gain friends and build in strength. It is not a popular place to be because it requires one to challenge the agricultural community, the motor manufacturing sector and the fossil fuel industries. If we continue as we are, however, we will miss the targets for which we signed up and consequently face a bill of €400 million per annum after 2020.

The Minister of State has shown leadership on climate change in many ways but, unfortunately, the Government and the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, have not shown the same. The reality is that we will see more and more problems with flooding and other effects of climate change. The challenge for potato growers in Donegal will remain as will the problems for cereal farmers throughout the country, who have experienced disastrous yields in recent years. The Government must show leadership on these matters but, even if it does, we will not see a benefit in the next ten years.Those who will gain from the leadership we show now in challenging those vested interests and making those arguments are our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. What type of country do we want to leave them? Are we going to tell our grandchildren that temperatures have increased by two to three degrees because we did nothing and continued to burn turf? Are we going to tell them that we had to bow to the coal industry and continue burning coal at Moneypoint or will we take a giant step forward and move towards sustainable investment in our energy? We need to move quickly. We have already missed an opportunity in the budget and side stepped the issue, having not provided for investment in electric vehicles, including buses.