Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know the purpose of today's Bill is to amend the National Oil Reserves Agency Act 2007 to facilitate the establishment of the climate action fund on a statutory basis. Given that we are in a climate emergency, a climate action fund is essential so we can carry out the necessary mitigation and adaptation measures to reduce our emissions and to protect those communities most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.Sinn Féin is happy to support this Bill but we would like to make several recommendations and observations. I welcome the Government's amendment to facilitate funding projects of a non-commercial nature. I would, however, encourage the Minister to ensure that project tenders, including those of an economic or commercial nature, would include social clauses. Such clauses can ensure that the local community can avail of job opportunities and social enterprises. The community and voluntary sector should not be excluded from tendering for projects, even for commercial tenders. We have seen first-hand the importance of this sector in the circular economy whereby jobs and training opportunities for disadvantaged workers have been created.

What protections and oversight mechanisms will be put in place regarding the decision-making for the projects? We cannot have a situation whereby Ministers can have pet projects for their constituencies. We have seen the outrage from people who were not appointed Ministers. They said their constituencies were let down. How can we ensure that it will not be like the Lotto funds and other funds that Ministers will allocate for their constituencies?

I wish to speak in favour of the amendment tabled by Senator Higgins on the scaling down of oil and gas in future. To meet our Paris agreement obligations we will have to decarbonise as rapidly as possible and shift away from the use of fossil fuels. We have seen growing concern in the United States about the stranded assets of oil companies. Chief executives have paid themselves out, as my colleague has said, handsome packages a week before filing for bankruptcy without ensuring that the finances were in place to restore the wells to their original state. Instead, they have left citizens with the bill for cleaning up while methane continues to leak into the atmosphere. Can the Minister outline how the National Oil Reserves Agency will ensure that the oil and gas companies in Ireland are adequately funded? Will we have a cast-iron, ring-fenced fund to ensure that we are not left with a situation similar to that in the USA?

I am keen to flag some concerns I have regarding biofuels. In this Bill the levy on biofuels is lower than on petroleum. As the Minister has said, this is in a bid to incentivise the use of biofuels. However, the Government does not have a good track record in ensuring biofuels in the Irish market are sustainably sourced and not the cause of indirect land use change. In fact, only last year the European Commission wrote to the Government about its failure to properly transpose the EU directive on biofuels to ensure the sustainability criteria were met. We know these sustainability criteria are already deeply flawed because they do not take into consideration the entire life cycle of the emissions of the fuels. While the phasing out of palm oil is welcome, it needs to happen far faster than by 2030. What are the Minister's plans to electrify road haulage and public transport? The idea would be to move away from reliance on biofuels. Surely this should be the priority.

I note aviation fuel is exempt from the Bill. I understand addressing this may be a matter for the EU. However, will the Minister pursue changes to this when he next meets his European colleagues? I suggest that in the absence of an aviation fuel tax perhaps we should consider introducing some form of tax on private jets. For example, an individual, who shall not be named, over the course of two and a half years took 698 flights on his €70 million private jet, all in a bid to avoid paying tax in this State. Surely if the Minister stands over the quadrupling of the carbon tax, then he would consider tackling wealth and consumption. This is one such measure that could be taken on board.

I wish to ask the Minister about the financial future of this fund. I note the projected funding is €500 million with annual funding of at least €50 million per annum over ten years. If our long-term goal is to rapidly reduce our reliance on oil and gas, then surely the amount raised in the levy will decrease accordingly. How is this being taken into account? The Bill states that annual expenditure will be €10 million in 2020, €30 million in 2021 and will increase to €100 million in 2027. Surely it would make sense to reverse that and front-load the funding. If we are doing our job right in tacking climate change, then income from the levy should be decreasing over time. Moreover, the Government is rolling out a July stimulus package.Surely it makes economic sense to front-load the investment from the climate action fund to create jobs and accelerate emissions reduction. More crucially, front-loading would also help mitigate against the impacts on struggling families of the increases in the levy and carbon tax. I would appreciate if the Minister could address some of those points.