Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in to speak with us today on the 2020 Annual Transition Statement.How our society is going to have to adapt to change behaviours in respect of climate is crucial. We know every person in this country will have to change how they live, work, travel and run his or her home. I very much appreciate the very detailed update the Minister of State gave us. I will go through a couple of the points he mentioned in his opening statement.

My concern lies with the most vulnerable and always has. The support for the measures that will have to be delivered will need to ensure that those who are most vulnerable can be covered and supported as well. We live in an equal society and "equal society" does not mean that some people who are perhaps in more secure employment, with better access to public transport, are somehow immune to a certain extent to the challenges that are faced by people who live in rural areas. This is a real concern.

On agriculture, our colleague, Senator Reilly, spoke about famines in the world and what will potentially happen in a number of months. This comes down to food security and how important it is that agriculture in many ways provides food security. That has been acknowledged. I went on a Teagasc walk in Ballydangan outside where I live in Ballinasloe where it was showing farmers about how the planting of red clover will put nitrogen back into the soil. It is looking at ways to do this and farmers are taking the lead here.

The key message is that farmers are seeking to change practices that will bring a benefit to them and benefits in the quality of beef and the way they are able to sell their beef into new markets, which is crucial. We must understand that Ireland is a world-class producer of food. One would be hard put to find another country that would compete with Ireland in terms of the level of dedication, commitment and young people who are involved. It is a family-run business in many cases but it is also generational. I do not know how to put it but coming from a farming background, it is a vocation to the land. This is unique. What Ireland can achieve in food security and supporting countries needs to be recognised as well. The challenge we have are the supports we need to put in place now for farmers with higher costs, particularly under the fodder scheme. The new agri-climate rural environmental scheme, ACRES, was also mentioned.

The Minister of State mentioned innovations withresearch and development and the disruptive technologies innovation fund, DTIF, of course, while strategies introduced through Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc will be crucial. It is not only low-emission slurry spreading and the different types of equipment that farmers can use but that the costs of equipment will be brought down. How are we looking at reducing the costs of equipment, particularly for newer and young farmers, to put these measures in place?

My second point is the Minister of State mentioned that the rise in emissions is residential. He said emissions went up by 6% and that was residential. Yes, of course; I am sure people working from home over the past two years had a major impact but again, I mention the just transition. The Minister of State will, of course, be very aware of the area I come from in Ballinasloe, east Galway, near Roscommon. The SEAI comes under the Minister of State's Department. Its officials appeared before a committee recently where they stated that the authority's budget allocation is now more than €440 million and of that, €267 million is allocated specifically to energy retrofits in homes and communities.

I ask the Minister of State to comment on why the response time is still 24 months for people who apply under the warmer homes scheme. People in the scheme are getting the fuel allowance. We have already seen how the Government has supported people by giving additional fuel allowance payments and supports to families and households. When is this response time going to reduce? When can we give a better timeline to families who are really struggling? Can the Minister of State also comment on the contracts or providers for the one-stop shop through the SEAI? What is the timeline for people who are looking to avail of the one-stop shop? Are they going to be different from those on the warmer homes scheme? If that is the case, then we have a serious issue here.

A small pool of people are able to provide the retrofits. I know the Minister of State is fully aware of this; we all are. I am on the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and, obviously, we are fighting to increase the number of apprenticeships. We have four retrofitting centres of excellence across the country. We are ramping up very fast. I know this has been in the past year or two but we must be able to have targets in place to say that 24-month response time is coming down. In no shape or form are we going to be able to challenge those homes and those people in particular if we cannot deliver for those warmer homes. I do not have the exact numbers but I believe 60,000 people might be on the fuel allowance.

I do not know the precise figures but the majority of buildings being retrofitted are residential. We also have tens of thousands of public buildings, however. What is being done in that regard? Are they being retrofitted? Will they be brought up to spec prior to us then going out and saying look at what is going to happen on the residential side as well?We are supporting the one-stop shop across many of our areas. We are having many public information meetings in rural areas to promote the scheme. This is very important. However, I would like a comment on how we are managing with our public buildings.

To me, coming from a rural area, transport is another issue. We attended the West on Track meeting this morning and it was wonderful to see how we could potentially get rail in the west and north west, but the real challenge for me concerns how we will get buses to bring people to hospital and back again when a significant percentage of people do not have access to cars. There is no form of transport other than the car in many rural areas. There is no train station or stop in small areas. In my constituency, the towns have between 6,000 and 7,500 inhabitants. Most of the people live in very rural areas and need taxis. They pay extra money for a taxi to get them from A to B because there is no public transport. The Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan was announced and mentioned here by the Minister of State. When will it be phased in? What is the position on the new routes we have spoken about, considering that Bus Éireann reduced the number of routes during the Covid pandemic? For example, the X20 service from Galway to Roscommon was taken away because of what Bus Éireann said was competition from private bus services. That is grand — there you go — but where are the other new services that are supposed to be available? There was to be one from Castlerea to Ballinasloe via Mountbellew and Caltra that would have brought people to Portiuncula hospital, never mind students travelling to Tús in Athlone or those going to town to shop. That is what we want to see. We want to see our smaller towns and villages being vital. Will the Minister of State comment on the phase-in of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan?

The last point I wanted to mention has gone straight out of my head. I will probably remember it but the Chair will not let me make it later.