Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive statement. At the outset, the Chair opined that he had gone well over time, which helps all of us, because it means he has covered most of the bases. I listened with interest to the two previous speakers, two people for whom I have great respect. They both spoke about the social justice aspect of climate change and also the concerns Senator Mullen rightly identified.

I am reminded of the old saying that it is impossible to make an omelette without breaking eggs. The reality is that unless we dismantle the structure that we have become dependent on, we are not going to reach a point where we are going to respect the climate for future generations. How we do that is really at issue. I take the point that both speakers made on the necessity to ensure that those who will feel the greatest impact from the actions we must take must be protected to the greatest extent possible. Ireland has done that well through successive Governments and over the generations. Our social protection code, by comparison with others throughout the world, is very good. Of course, it could be better. I accept there are issues. We must ensure that, as we make the changes, we are mindful of the people who will be impacted the most.

Going back ten or 12 years, I was probably one of the more lonely voices in this House when I talked about climate change and the necessity to address it. At that stage, it was a debate for environmentalists or academics, although I did not come from either background, but I saw the necessity to address the issue then. It was not something that was discussed by the public when the Minister of State's colleague, Roger Garland, was elected as the first Green Party representative to the Dáil. People again took the view that it was more to do with dogs fouling the walkways around Dún Laoghaire that had attracted such a popular vote for respect for the environment rather than fully understanding what he was talking about. Things have moved on and climate change is discussed everywhere now - in the pub by elderly people, in the playground by children, and in colleges and schools by the young. They are demanding us as politicians to change the way we do business. Like most matters, the public are well ahead of us.

We have got to move from what the academics and environmentalists would have had as their mantra, which was all about stopping and what we could not and should not do any more. We must look to the opportunities that exist in climate change. There are significant opportunities to do things right and in a respectful way. That is the case with agriculture. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, announced a significant budget yesterday of €1.5 billion, under the ACRES programme, to do agriculture in a more sustainable way that is sympathetic to land use and the environment, and beneficial to farmers.

I hate the term win-win, but if I was ever to use it, that is the context in which I would use it. We see it in the opportunities around cleaning and greening our energy base. I take the point Senator Mullen made, but if we get strung up in that area we will never get to the solution. We must look at the potential opportunities along the western seaboard to serve rural communities. I accept that we need to move away from harvesting peat the way we did in the midlands, but there are massive opportunities from Donegal to Kerry in capturing offshore wind. The only point I would make to the Minister of State is that this Government and the previous one have somehow lacked ambition in terms of moving to floating offshore wind. While I accept there are projects on the east coast, the real opportunity is floating offshore wind. Other countries have started.If we can, we have an opportunity to be net exporters not just of energy but of the technologies associated with the floating pontoons. This would create jobs in places such as Kilrush, Kilkee and Miltown Malbay and help to address the urban-rural divide to give people an opportunity to have gainful employment back in their communities. That is a win. Is it protecting the environment? Absolutely. Is it having a pop at geopolitics? Yes, because never again will we need to be dependent on a dictator like Vladimir Putin or the issues in the Middle East or the Gulf or wherever.

Let us become energy independent and become energy exporters. Let us not say it will take another ten years because we must wait for technologies. Let us embrace it as a small country. We did it before in many other fields. We did it when we set a trend under Seán Lemass to develop an industrial zone around a small airport some suggested would not survive at Shannon Airport. There are 10,000 people working there today because of the vision of somebody like Seán Lemass, who said to hell with the official reports - this is a good idea that can happen and is sustainable, which it is. That area went from light engineering to the most sophisticated technologies now on the face of the earth. We have companies like Intel and Jaguar Land Rover developing the next wave of technologies around autonomous vehicles. They are way out there in terms of what they can do. If we sow the seed, it can grow and it will deliver.

I am really hopeful that this Government, for the length of time it has left, sows that seed for offshore wind capture. It benefits so much more domestically and locally in a region in terms of job creation and gives families an opportunity to stay and come back. It changes and removes Europe’s dependence on people like Putin and others, who have shown that once they weave their way into our economies, they exercise control in the most heinous way. What Putin - not the Russian people - is doing in Ukraine is absolutely abominable. We have seen the destruction of people's homes, migration, the undermining of human dignity and rape and plunder. To think that is happening in Europe in this day and age is an abhorrence and we have all played into it because we have used the cheap oil. We have kept it going and now he has us by the neck. Sadly, this is not being addressed on a worldwide basis by the Chinese, for example, and I am really disappointed with the way the Indians have provided an outlet for Russian oil. That is obviously their decision but it is wrong. While the price of oil has spiralled out of control, there has been no reduction in the output of oil between now and 12 months ago. The same volume of oil is being used and the same volume is being pumped. The fear around the war of aggression by Russia has spooked the markets, however, and we are paying twice what we should be paying for it. We cannot let that happen again. Here is one of the positives from our approach to climate change. Let us capture our own wind and let us do so in stable democracies. However one might view the Government from time to time, we have a stable democracy. We can export that into the European market and we will all benefit.

I supported the carbon tax when it was not popular. I supported it from an Opposition perspective. I managed to get the Fianna Fáil team on board at the time as we ran into the local elections. Notwithstanding what Senator Mullen said, and there is absolute truth in what he said, that does provide a pool of money. The deal about carbon tax at the time was that it was to be sequestered. It was not to go into the black hole of the Departments of Finance or Public Expenditure and Reform. It was money that would be allocated to climate action measures. The €1.5 billion the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is investing is going back into the greening of the agricultural sector. It will go into the retrofitting of homes where people have very low incomes and are dependent on social welfare. That to me is a justification, notwithstanding the pushback from certain sections of the community. It is a benefit to the least well-off and I hope we can continue to maintain support for it.