Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank the Green Party Senators for this Bill. This is nothing new. Let us not get too excited. There are five Stages to a Bill so we have a long way to go before this becomes legislation. We ought to be realistic.

I will support the Bill but there are a number of questions we need to ask about it. First, I am led to believe we do not need a Bill at all. I presume the Minister of State has had advice and briefing in advance of coming to the House.I am advised that no Bill is required. I am advised that the officials of the Minister of State who is ultimately responsible - the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke - have been working extensively on regulations prior to and since he came into office. I am also advised that the Department is happiest to proceed - this is not to say that it is always right - via regulations.

Senators Pauline O'Reilly and Garvey spoke very eloquently and are very committed to renewable alternative energy, particularly in respect of its impact on public buildings and schools, but what is the quickest way to achieve this? Is it through regulations to be signed by the Minister, who is competent and will ultimately have advice on that, or is it through the Bill? I have no hang-ups about a Bill or about regulations. I want it done and done quickly but I want it done with a number of conditions. The Minister of State will be familiar and the Green Party will be particularly familiar with environmental impact assessments, environmental impact appraisal and the conditions set out about public engagement in environment and planning relating to the Aarhus Convention. I saw on the Minister of State's website today some of the issues relating to public engagement. To be fair to his party, it has a really strong commitment to engaging with the public - the citizen, who, ultimately, must have a say. It is important that we look. We have protected structures, the curtilage of protected structures and heritage buildings. Kilkenny, where the Minister of State comes from, is adorned with the most beautiful buildings. We cannot introduce a system that in any way compromises or undermines them in terms of our principles relating to protected structures. We have national monuments, very sensitive sites and sites out in the Burren in County Clare and I would be appalled if I thought one of these was going up. That is only my view. We have the aviation industry, which has made representations relating to Clare and is unhappy across the country with regard to aspects of them.

There is a lot of work to be teased out. Critically, we need some kind of assessment and appraisal. We need scoping and an assessment of its impact on the physical environment and the natural environment. I do not think the Minister of State disagrees with any of that. We must take it easy and go through all the steps.

I was in Thurles today and spoke to a number of schoolchildren. I mentioned that I was looking forward to coming and engaging with this Green Party Bill today. Immediately, three or four of these eight-year-olds said they did not like these panels. I asked why they did not like them. One of the girls told me that she saw a programme in Spain where they were being dumped into a landfill while another little fellow told me that they only have a lifespan of eight to ten years. These are young children engaging and their school is a green school too. It is great that they are engaging in respect of the environment. I simply do not know as a politician where they go. Do they go into landfill? Are they made of certain plastics? Are there certain aspects of them that are not biodegradable? I would certainly like to know more about it. What is the international experience? There are a lot of questions to be asked. However, I am supportive of the Bill at this stage because we need to run it in tandem with what the Department might be doing, thinking and planning.

On a positive note, my colleagues and I had the opportunity to visit a fruit and vegetable establishment in north County Dublin some weeks ago. Again, I saw at first hand how the horticultural industry has embraced solar panels. This successful horticultural business is not too far away from Lusk and Dublin Airport. While they were not on the ground because I have some concerns about that, we have a land policy. As part of her brief, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is responsible for our land policy. What I liked about the project, and I will point the Minister of State in the direction of these people because it is a really good model, is that they were slightly raised about 1.5 m off the ground. They were successfully using them as shelter for salad crops. They were catching the sun and producing energy for their tomato houses so there was a synergy and a worked-out scheme. They tweaked it for a few years but they got something right. There are real possibilities and potential for it, certainly in the horticultural industry. It is an area related to climate change. We spoke with the leader of the Green Party and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications about the climate Bill last week. He mentioned that we need to embrace alternatives, get the horticultural industry up and running, empower the agricultural community and the rural community, get jobs there and get alternatives in terms of land use. There are a lot of good points and I do not want to be negative. I want to be positive and support it.

However, I would ask the Minister of State to address some areas such as his knowledge of the regulations versus the Bill and how far the Department has gone. If nothing else, this Bill will put pressure on the Department and officials. The focus must be how quickly we can get this over the line.