Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I congratulate him on progressing the Bill. I congratulate also my colleague Senator Pauline O'Reilly, and others who have led on this ambitious Bill, as well as all involved in the climate change committee.

The Minister will be aware that I too have served in his Department, on the natural resources side of things, and we have had back and forth debates on a number of things, including fracking and oil licensing. I will have to change my views, to a degree, in support of the Bill but that is important too. I have used the mantra that as we transition to a low-carbon society, we will still need to use oil, gas and, to a lesser extent, coal for a number of years or a number of decades. As we have seen in the case of peat being discontinued as a fuel for electricity generation, and the plans to transition from Moneypoint to pivot away to cleaner and more sustainable types of electricity generation, there are challenges. One of the challenges is security of supply. Plans for the Celtic interconnector project were progressing when I was in the Department, which is positive, albeit we would be importing nuclear generated fuel. While there may be a certain hypocrisy in that, it is part of the interconnection and security of supply.

In the context of wind generation in particular, there is an issue around planning. This area encompasses everything that I can see in this society at the moment, whereby there are concerns around planning whether it is in trying to build a greenway, a road, or houses. I note the ruling by the High Court last week that could impact on the development of new wind farms. I have been at a number of meetings over the years and have engaged with residents who have serious concerns about the development of wind farms. I have supported the need for them.I have said on numerous occasions that all political parties, in particular the Green Party, have advocated for wind farms in their election manifestos dating back over many of years, but the objections to them continue. People's concerns in regard to noise and shadow flicker have to be taken on board. There have been constant delays in regard to the updated guidelines on setback distances from homes. I am concerned that the same issues will arise when we move to offshore development. I support such development but if the delays in regard to offshore are the same as we have seen in many cases with onshore development, then we face challenges in terms of meeting demands. When one considers that some of the more exclusive properties in the country are set on our coastlines, I can foresee challenges ahead.

I previously mentioned the meeting with I had with residents in Indreabhán, Connemara, County Galway, regarding proposals for the upgrade of an existing wind project involving pushing back a little from the homes into commonage land, which would invariably be a national heritage area, NHA, or special areas of conservation, SAC, land. I know that is totally anathema to policy but is there merit in looking at that proposal, considering there is so much of my area in Connemara that is designated? Would impacting on a small section of that area be beneficial in terms of gaining acceptance from a community in that case?

On agriculture, will farmers be credited for carbon sequestration in respect of their hedgerows, hedgerow trees and groves of trees? When driving or travelling by train or by bus along the countryside, one will see the quantity of such hedgerows, which do not form part of the State recognition with regard to carbon sequestration. Will the State be granted those carbon credits or will individual farmers be credited with them? How will that operate?

On biodiversity, which Senator Gallagher touched on, state aid was provided in the 1960s and 1970s to remove hedgerows, walls and ditches and install electric fencing, particularly for dairy farms and larger fields for tillage as well. That was a sign of the times. The State agency, Teagasc or rather, its predecessors, advocated for that. There has been a sea change for the past 20 years or more in terms of the rural environmental protection scheme, REPS, and its successor programmes in reversing that and in understanding the importance of landscape features of walls and hedgerows and trying to promote and grow them to recognise the benefit in terms of biodiversity. All of that is welcome.

Senator Boylan referenced data centres. We know Sinn Féin would prefer to keep its information and data stored in rather dubious circumstances abroad and operated from Serbia, but data centres are hugely important. We are living in an age where data and information has transformed our lives from education to health to transport and business. Those data must be stored and managed. Our climate is suited to that task and we have massive potential for growing our renewable energy resources. Data centres are required to store data created by all of us and must happen within the EU. All major IT companies that are based here have to store data as well. There are issues with regard to the energy supply. That is one of the main concerns with regard to data centres, but I know that interconnection and renewables will be important in that regard.

I could speak for a lot longer on this topic. It is important and the plan is ambitious. There is an old saying about buying a pig in a poke and I have concerns in regard to the specifics around sectoral targets. I know that is a concern for many people, particularly in regard to agriculture. We will see over the coming years how that is achieved.