Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree wholeheartedly with all Senator Boylan has said in the sense that we know the divisiveness of advertising in general by companies that are environmentally destructive. As for attempts to compare advertising of tobacco, fast food, gambling and alcohol, they are distinctly different but similar in many ways. I will not name companies but we have seen that one company was able to rebrand itself as Beyond Petroleum for many years.

I have seen the videos the Senator spoke about and they are excellent. I welcome the fact that the Department has signed a number of European citizen initiatives, with Irish citizens also involved in signing them. I urge young people and people all over Ireland to get involved in the European Citizens' Initiative.

The matter the Senator has raised for discussion is really one for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, but I will outline briefly, in the time I have remaining, Ireland's commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels. It is recognised internationally that that is the best way forward. As a founder member of the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance, an international coalition of governments and stakeholders working together to facilitate the managed phase-out of oil and gas production, Ireland is committed to that initiative.

Domestically, new solid fuel regulations will come into force on 31 October and will introduce minimum quality standards that will apply to all solid fuels distributed throughout the State. That will ensure that the most polluting fuels can no longer be made available on the Irish market and will assist the public in transitioning to less polluting alternatives. The regulations also ensure that selling non-approved solid fuel products from retail premises, on the Internet or by means of other media will not be permitted. The new regulations are necessary as each year some 1,300 people die prematurely in Ireland due to air pollution from solid fuel burning. It is estimated that over 16,200 life years are lost, while many people also experience a poor quality of life due to the associated short-term and long-term health impacts of pollution. It increases hospitalisation with respiratory illnesses every year as well.

I turn now to the vast programme of work the Government is doing to rapidly replace fossils fuels in our energy system directly with renewable energy sources, led by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and his Department. It is important to emphasise the scale and ambition of the programme the Government is delivering on to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and make Ireland a world leader in the delivery of renewable energy as part of a global drive to a net-zero carbon economy.

The 2021 climate action plan sets out the roadmap to meeting Ireland's target of a 51% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2030, including a suite of measures and actions to increase the share of electricity demand generated from renewable sources to up to 80%. With the agreement of the sectoral emissions ceilings in July of this year, the Government has committed to an increase in the renewable energy targets, including additional resources for solar - more than doubling the target to 5,500 MW - and offshore, moving from 5 GW to 7 GW, with the additional 2 GW earmarked for the production of green hydrogen. The Government is committed to increasing the supply of renewable energy to our grid in line with these targets and the overriding need to accelerate the delivery of renewable energy projects in the context of energy price rises and energy market volatility.Renewable energy is critical to enabling our transition to a low-carbon economy. Ireland is a world leader in onshore wind energy and we have enormous potential to similarly become a world leader in offshore wind energy and to harness our solar energy resources, including rooftops and ground-mounted solar. I welcome the Senator bringing the issue forward. It is a matter for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Ireland is committed to eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels. That is the way forward. The Senator made a valid point regarding how dangerous, sinister and manipulative the advertising can be. I welcome the European Citizens' Initiative and any issue the State can raise on that.