Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Laskavo prosymo.That is "welcome" in Ukrainian. Unfortunately, I have been saying those words a lot recently because we have had so many Ukrainians come into our county. Maybe we should all learn how to say those words for starters. I thank the Minister deeply because from the get-go he has turned on a sixpence and created systems that were never before demanded at such a scale and in such a short time. So far so good. Unfortunately, it looks like we will have a lot more to do, but the response from the Minister, his Department and the ordinary people of Ireland has been mind-blowing. It gives you faith in most people. Obviously, there are some very evil people, like Putin, but it is to be hoped the good will outweigh the bad and, overall, we will be victorious.

In my county, Clare, we have seen mind-blowing generosity from everybody, particularly the Polish community. They have been amazing. They led the way for the rest of us, who did not know what to do or how we could help, so I give a big shout out to the Polish people. Many of my Polish friends' family homes in Poland are now full of Ukrainians. It has been amazing. We must have hope and focus on the amount of positivity there is in most ordinary people in this world so we do not fall into the darkness surrounding the few evil people who can fill our minds with negative thoughts and a lack of hope. I have had many phone calls and conversations with people who are finding the war overwhelming. Overall, however, we must remember the average human being is good and means well. We have seen that globally in the outpouring from ordinary people at every level of society as we try to do all we can to support these people in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians who have got as far as Ireland are some of the luckier ones, which is astounding to think. Everything is relative. Some are still back in their homes fearing the worst and fighting for their countries. Mother's Day is approaching. I think of the mothers of Ukraine who do not have their husbands, sons or fathers with them because they have had to stay at home to fight for their lives.

Our country is part of the EU. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has been good at that level, but we have to be strong and do all we can to lead the EU. It is said there are no more sanctions we can impose. We have to beg our neighbours in Germany and France. We have to ask them to listen and to look at this properly and see if there is more we can do.

As a people, we can do our best. In some ways one of the most significant things we can do is look at our complete fossil fuel addiction and do more to wean ourselves off it. That seems to be the grasp Putin has on the EU, which is why the EU has not been stronger. I suppose Putin had hoped he would split us. He is having some success in that at present, but we are now in wartime. It is not a world war but it is a huge war the likes of which we have not seen since the 1930s. When was the last time we had 3 million people coming into Europe in such a short time? It is very important the Irish Cabinet looks at expediting every single thing we can do to move away from our fossil fuel addiction. We have had the solutions to wean ourselves off fossil fuels and these have come from the Green Party, the green movement, environmental activism and environmental scientists for 30 or 40 years. We have always had the solutions. One of the main reasons I got involved in green politics was to try to get those solutions manifested. We have seen good public transport, electrification of houses and really good retrofitting schemes, but we need to prioritise that now. At present, people are stuck with their fossil fuel dependence.

We cannot all go out and buy electric cars in the morning but, at a personal level, we have to drive our cars less. I know the Minister, Deputy Ryan, got shot down for saying driving above certain speeds results in increased use of fuel, but he was right. We have to take things at a personal level. The State, unfortunately, will not be able to bail everybody out. The Government will not be able to cover the quadrupled cost of 10-10-20 fertiliser for farmers. We will not be able to cover the cost increases in petrol and diesel, and they are not going down anytime soon, so we have some personal responsibility to look at our behaviour. This is behavioural change we were working towards anyway because of the climate emergency, but now we have an extra emergency, thanks to Putin, a war emergency, and this is wartime. Anybody who was alive during the Second World War will remember rationing, and we have to do that on a personal level. Unfortunately, it has come to that.

It is important the Cabinet prioritises all this now. We need to get our offshore wind going and to improve our public transport vastly, especially in rural areas. Currently, we see a big discrepancy between the choices rural and urban people have. I have a friend who has a Brompton, a lovely fold-up bike. He can go out of his house, cycle a kilometre, hop on the train and arrive in Dublin. That is lovely. Many people do not have that choice. A lot of our carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption come from private car owners in rural areas, so there is a significant part to play. We can turn some of this negativity into a positive if we expedite all the things we need to do on climate action. It will give us cleaner air, save us money and make us less dependent on evil people like Putin.