Seanad debates

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

Annual Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015: Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of Mary FitzpatrickMary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House and for all the work he and his Department are doing. I thank everybody on the Joint Committee on Climate Action, which is meeting daily. It is great to see such energy and cross-party consensus. Similar to how we all tried to suppress the virus, there is a political movement whereby collective energy is being applied to try to have the Seanad and Dáil take significant climate action. This is great and really encouraging. It genuinely encourages the young people who protested for so many Fridays during the term of the previous Dáil. It gives hope that we can achieve a just transition to a climate-resilient and carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

I will limit my comments to three areas that I would like the Minister to consider. The first concerns energy. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We have been engaging in the pre-legislative scrutiny of the marine planning and development management Bill, which the Minister will be aware will create a planning and regulatory system for our marine territories. It will be a major Bill and it will be important that the State get it right. Offshore wind energy presents a great opportunity. I had some appreciation of it but as the pre-legislative scrutiny meetings have proceeded, I have become much more aware of what is entailed. Not everybody in the House may know that Ireland, as a small island, has the offshore wind capacity potentially to generate 20% of Europe's renewable electricity. That is an enormous opportunity. I am not saying we are going to realise it in full but it is enormous. It has been stated many times that no other single intervention could deliver us as much renewable energy in one fell swoop. It is great and I am very supportive of it. We need to pass the legislation.

A concern I have regarding the Bill relates to protecting biodiversity. One of the first Bills the Minister brought to this House was the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) and Provision of Central Treasury Services Bill 2020, which ring-fences funds from the oil industry for the climate action fund. What are the Minister's thoughts on creating a mechanism within the marine planning legislation to apply a levy on the industry such that the accruing funds could be ring-fenced to invest in protecting marine biodiversity?

I fully recognise and commend the Government on the €220 million allocated for retrofitting. I fully support the decision to allocate the biggest chunk of money to low-income households. That is appropriate. It is important that everybody, particularly those who need help most in upgrading their homes, be supported by the Government. Can the Minister provide us with an update on the national retrofit office that was promised? I specifically seek information on grants for middle-income earners. If we can help people to have healthier, more sustainable homes, it will help the individuals therein but also our communities and country.

On public transport and transportation generally, transport accounts for 20% of all our emissions, 51% of which come from private cars. In no place more than Dublin do we need to get out of our cars. While Covid-19 has emptied the streets of cars and while the city has become much more comfortable for cycling and walking, the bus transportation service, which has continued at a reduced rate, has become more important in Dublin commuters' minds. Could the Minister update us on the investment in buses? I am aware there was a commitment to have 100 hybrid buses. I believe a hydrogen bus is being trialled. Could we have an update on that?

BusConnects is a very ambitious project. I support it. We need more affordable, accessible and reliable public bus services in the city, but we also need to ensure there are appropriate services farther out from the inner city estates. I hear this particularly in the county areas. A small local bus service is important. The Minister mentioned in his opening remarks the ideas of 15-minute communities and 15-minute cities. Small local bus services can be a lifeline not only for elderly people but also for schoolgoing children and other students. Increasingly, we should be ambitious for Dublin so people living there will not have to own a car and will be able to rely primarily on public transport services. To achieve this, we will need to increase the capacity and the operations of the bus services.

Regarding the Royal Canal greenway, we opened the stretch from Spencer Dock up to Newcomen Bridge at North Strand. It is great but the Minister is probably not aware that it has taken us 15 years. The pace at which we are delivering such projects has to be accelerated. Over the course of 15 years, we had to engage with Waterways Ireland, Irish Rail, CIÉ, Dublin City Council, the National Transport Authority and the Department of Transport. All the stakeholders came together do a superb job, delivering superb infrastructure, but we need to accelerate the model considerably. We have a route from Spencer Dock all the way to Athlone and beyond. Let us really bring the greenway on the Royal Canal to life. It is fantastic, sustainable infrastructure. I encourage the Minister to do all he can to accelerate it in his time in office.

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