Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House. It is a privilege for me to speak on this Bill. This is the beginning of something exciting and is working towards a cleaner and more sustainable future. It will strengthen the statutory framework for governance of climate action by the State in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It will drive the implementation of that suite of policies that will help us as a nation to achieve those goals. It is an exciting time.

I was thinking yesterday about how far we have come. It brings me back to the late 1990s, when I was in school. I was so frustrated with the waste that we produced that I began a campaign and petition for a recycle bin. That is how basic it was back in the late 1990s. It was such a new concept to my school that I had to start a campaign for a green team. My goal was to get people to understand the importance of reducing waste, to "reduce", "reuse" and "recycle" - those three words that we have come to know so well - protecting our environment and taking part in those projects regarding the destruction of our air and water quality. The simplicity of my school project pales in comparison with the children’s green schools' projects now. They are so far advanced from where we were 20 years ago and it is wonderful.

This Bill is not really for us, but for our children. It will result in our children growing up and growing older in a far cleaner and better country. We all accept there is a huge urgency to address climate change. However, I stress that it must be done in an equitable, sustainable and fair way. People are happy to take actions to deal with the issue of climate change. The only downside for people is the fear that they will not be able to afford to survive. The State has a huge body of work to do to bring about climate justice. Older people and people on lower incomes are worried about the costs this is going put them. Fuel poverty is one of the biggest concerns globally.

This fair and equitable transition is critical to bringing people with us.Climate adaption cannot just be for families who can afford to be climate neutral or who have the privilege of being able to afford an electric car or sustainable option to heat and power their homes. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. We need to work really hard to ensure no one suffers because they cannot afford the upgrades or transition. We need to ramp up our investment in retrofitting and be far more creative in how we enable citizens to upgrade their homes. It is not a time for piecemeal changes.

Sometimes there is a lot of hypocrisy. So many people see raw sewage going into our waterways, the lack of proper incentives to reduce our waste, the lack of movement on the banning of smoky fuels and the EU signing up to the Mercosur deal to bring beef into Europe. These contradictions and hypocrisy get people's backs up and often reduce their buy-in to the concept of achieving carbon neutrality. In their gut, they want to create a carbon-neutral State but are afraid of the financial consequences for them.

Rural Ireland is sometimes used as a scapegoat. The country is predominantly rural. Our mountains, rivers, farmland and forests are our capital and comprise the most basic infrastructure we need to fight against climate change. I am genuinely sick of some sectors and stakeholders blaming and placing all the responsibility on rural dwellers, including those in one-off housing. Farmers are blamed but, with assistance and support, they could continue to improve, safeguard and protect the natural environment and, therefore, reduce and sequester our carbon emissions. Let us not forget that our agrifood sector is one of the most efficient and sustainable in all of Europe, if not the world. Our agrifood sector is one of the most important indigenous manufacturing sectors, accounting for the employment of around 167,000 people. There are almost 700 food and drink firms throughout the country that export food, including seafood, to more than 160 countries. Economic activity in the agrifood sector provides a far bigger return than equivalent activity in other traded sectors of the economy. That is because agrifood companies source 74% of raw materials from Irish suppliers. By comparison, the rate for other manufacturing companies is 43%.

We will ask our farmers and other citizens to make huge changes. We will also ask our multinationals to do so. However, asking a farmer to make changes and asking a multinational to make changes are not comparable. Most farms in this country are small and owned by families. I am sure that if the State invested in research to find out how much carbon these small family farms produce and sequester, we would find out that most are carbon neutral. It is important that we protect not only our environment but also this indigenous industry. It is our largest industry and one I am very proud of. I come from a family of very fine beef and lamb producers in the Cooley Mountains. I consider what we produce and do and look at the land and hedgerows. An ash tree can sequester up to 60 kg of carbon annually. Research shows that it takes 23 kg of carbon to get a beef cow to slaughter. There are many more ash trees on a farm than there are beef cattle so it is not a simple matter. We have so much work to do.

Even if in ten years we discover that there was a mistake in the science and mathematics and that climate change is not an emergency, we will still have a far better country. We will have cleaner air and water. Therefore, it is really good that we have this Bill. It is a fantastic Bill but we just need to ensure that we protect the vulnerable and rural Ireland.