Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his contribution to this important debate. Climate change is one of the key issues that we deal with. We have heard the political analyst from the Fianna Fáil press office make that statement here this morning. It is disappointing that Fianna Fáil is playing politics with such an important issue that we are trying to grapple with and on which we have made such progress in the last six months. We have to go back further than that. I compliment the Senators here who sat on the Joint Committee on Climate Action, as I did. Some of us spent months working on that framework. Some Members in this Chamber put their hearts and souls into that. I compliment those who turned up and participated. Others did not but that is an issue for them. When I was a member of that committee, I worked closely with all parties to bring forward a fair and comprehensive report which then became the blueprint the Minister announced. That has been a successful process. In the past six months, we have seen a major change in how Irish society views climate change. We have been trying to bring people with us and that has been a positive step.

The Minister has brought forward measures relating to just transition, retrofitting and other key issues such as transportation. I heard my colleague mention air pollution. We saw mistakes in the past related to air pollution. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party produced an air pollution policy with taxation implications for transportation, which had an awful effect on the air quality in Dublin in particular. We have learned from those mistakes, which is why this is so important, and are moving forward. I compliment the Minister on the roadshows he has brought forward and for the engagement at grassroots level, which we sought at the committee, to bring the people with us. In places such as Kinsale and Clonakilty, students came out and marched because it is their community, society and planet. They want change and I think that every Senator in this room is aware that unless we provide the change, we are letting our society down.

The train has left the station and there is major change, and we have to take people with us. Just transition is important. In my part of the world, we have both very urban and rural areas. How can one marry both of those with regard to the issue of climate change and take people along on this journey? That is the real challenge for the next ten years. How can we get rural residents and maybe older people in society to change their ways? I think the younger generation is moving rapidly but bringing the older generation with us will be a challenge. Transportation and a person's ability to access it, whether in rural Ireland or urban Ireland, is becoming a major part of that. I got a statistic from Bus Éireann last week about school bus services, that one school bus produces the same emissions as two dirty diesel cars. If there are 52 children on the bus, substantial savings are made with regard to emissions. That is the kind of thinking that we need to talk about to ensure that we work with the transportation links that we have to provide school transportation, especially in rural areas, so that there is a knock-on effect of reducing emissions.

Six months on from when the Minister announced his action plan, we have seen major positive change in society, which is what we need. We need to build on it and on that momentum. I am confident that the Minister has the necessary experience from the action plan for jobs and the ability and energy to deliver this important project, which is unique because it comes from central Government. If we do not have that drive and leadership, there will not be real change. At meetings of the committee on which I sat, the key issue was that the Secretaries General had no ambition in so many areas. That is why there has to be a whole-of-government project. The level of ambition of the secretaries general who turned up and gave evidence was absolutely frightening. It was everyone else's fault bar theirs. They were not going to come up with the solutions. The civil servant attitude must change if we are to have genuine governmental change in delivery on the ground. We have started on that process, but it must continue. The momentum must build. If we can continue to build it, we will get what society wants - a reduction in emissions and a move towards a carbon neutral society by 2050. These are important issues for society. Anyone who has been knocking on doors in the past two or three weeks will have encountered these issues at every third or fourth door. These are the issues people are talking about. That is why it is so important that we show leadership and deliver on this key issue. If we do not, we will let down society and the societies that will come after us. This is the ultimate challenge and we need to ensure we deliver on it.