Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I very much appreciate the various contributions I heard during the debate. I will look back at the record to read the earlier contributions.

To respond to Senator McDowell, we could easily lapse into despondency and ask why should we do anything because it is too late to address climate change. There is no doubt but that it will be a challenge beyond compare. What we need to do will require incredible change. We need to halve our emissions this decade and achieve net-zero in three decades. It is no small change. It will require considerable effort but various things make me confident that we can and will do it.

Our targets do not only exist because of commitments in the programme for Government. Those commitments were the right ones to make. They take a science-based approach to the Paris climate agreement we signed stating what we need to do to reduce the probability of, if not avoid completely, runaway climate change that would take us past the tipping point. The reasonable commitment for a developed country like Ireland to make is to halve our emissions in a decade. We are committed to that through the Paris climate agreement and our programme for Government. We are also committed to it in the European Union. Next week, I will attend a European energy Council meeting. Under the Fit for 55 package, Europe intends to reduce its emissions by 55%. The major legislative blocks of change coming from Europe is the European strategy. This is the European economic strategy as well as the climate strategy. It represents the entire effort. It is backed up by what is happening with the war in Ukraine. Our alternative is to remain reliant on imported fossil fuels, for which we do not set the price, for which we lose the balance of payments and for which we do not get the jobs. That would leave us exposed and is not a tenable approach to take. Even if these targets were not among our programme for Government commitments, we would be compelled towards them.

We are not in a good place because we had a lost decade from 2011 onwards. We did not manage the emission reductions that were achieved in other countries. That means what we have to do is more challenging than what is faced by some of our neighbouring countries, which have taken actions over the past decade. None of the actions of those countries have been perfect. In fact, none have been very good. If one looks under the hood of the changes that have been made, we are not too far behind. However, we are behind and need to catch up and overtake.

Senator McDowell asked whether there is a plan, and there is. The climate action plan is the plan. I believe it is a good structure and it is backed up by the climate law we passed last year. One of the most compelling reasons it is the right structure is that it came out of political consensus. It was not the strategy of this Government alone. It was built on the work done by the previous Minister, Deputy Bruton, in setting up such a structure and a planned approach. The approach includes hundreds of actions that test to see are we on track to meet our commitments. It is based on consensus more than any other public policy. We have climate law, the Climate Change Advisory Council, the carbon budgets we have set up and the action plan, which is designed to be revised every year, plus the sectoral targets that mean each Minister in every area knows what he or she must meet. The climate action plan, initiated last November, will be revised in the coming November. It is designed to be an iterative plan so we will know if we are falling behind in a particular area, which is a possibility to which the Senator drew attention. It is not the case that we will suddenly arrive in 2030 and be left in the position of saying things did not happen in the way we thought they would. If we are falling behind in a particular area, the plan requires Ministers to adjust and to change policies to achieve our targets. That is a real challenge but it is also an opportunity. The reason I believe we will meet the challenge is it will only work if we are moving towards a better system.

We need to change in a variety of key areas. Energy is probably the biggest such area. We must change from being a country that is among the most reliant on imported fossil fuels and with a high dependency on gas for our power generation. We have a record of massive increasing demand for oil in our transport sector over the past 20 or 30 years. We must switch to our own energy and fuel, which we have securely available. In fact, we have a comparative competitive advantage. We live in a very windy country. This is where all the investment, technological innovation and development is taking place. Why would we not want to tap into that comparative competitive advantage and switch from burning imported fuels brought from far away at enormous cost towards an alternative over which we have control? We are good at balancing variable supply. My father used to say that if you get a reputation as an early riser, you can lie in for the rest of your days. The Danes are very good at integrating renewables but I think we are better. We run our integrated renewables on an isolated synchronised system where we are good at managing variable supply and demand. We should build on what we are good at.

I heard Senator Buttimer's contribution and he is right that we are going to transform Cork for the better. Like many other Irish cities, Cork followed a sprawling model. There is nothing wrong with Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Midleton or any of the other towns that prospered as Cork hollowed out but now is the time to bring life back into the centre. We are building the metropolitan rail system for Cork. It is real and it is happening. There will be a new station in Tivoli. I met Land Development Agency officials the other day.We could house 11,000 people in Tivoli, a stunning location right on the river, close to the train station with trains at ten- or 15-minute intervals, better than the DART service. What is not to like about that as a way of switching? The benefit of that is the emissions reduction is not just in the mode of transport but actually in a reduction of the volume of transport because people are living closer to the centre - the 15-minute city concept. I could go right across this country to cities, towns and villages where that transformation can, should and will apply, using our own power supply, using electricity rather than oil. Next week the European Council will agree the end of the internal combustion engine by 2035. I do not envisage anyone rejecting it. The European Parliament will approve it. This is coming and this is the better economy. This is something we can be good at.

The same applies with farming. The current farming system does not serve the vast majority of Irish farmers. Senator Higgins will recall the average income for beef farmer from our committee's work. Was it €13,000 or €16,000 year?