Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is welcome to the Chamber. We are delighted to have her here to take this important motion.

Two of the big crises facing our country at the moment relate to housing and climate change. The motion deals with both. We know that housing simply is not being built fast enough or cheaply enough. It also involves an enormous volume of embodied carbon. The motion aims to deal with all of those things.It calls on the Government to do three things: first, to establish a working group between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in order to devise and implement the necessary policies and legislative changes to remove existing barriers to an increase in the use of timber in construction; second, to work with industry, third level education and State bodies in order to skill up the construction industry on timber as a construction material; and, third, to increase timber use in construction through public procurement, a wood-first policy and whole-life carbon reporting. My colleague, Senator Martin, will deal with a couple of those elements. I will deal first with the important issue of the climate crisis.

When we look at buildings in Ireland we see that 37% of emissions come from the construction and built environment sectors. That equals the emissions from agriculture. We often hear people talk about how much carbon emissions there are in agriculture, and they are astronomical, but it is the exact same for construction and building, and that is rarely heard. I know the Minister of State is passionate about using wood because it has the dual purpose of getting houses built and reducing our carbon footprint. It is important that we get going on that and everybody buys into it. Not only that, but if we start to ramp up the use of timber in construction, we can ensure that 100% of our wood is used. Wood is an imperative when it comes to nature, but when we look at the timber industry we can make sure that we have houses built and that the byproducts are then used for energy, so timber can have that dual purpose.

What is embodied carbon? It arises from the extraction of resources, the quantity of the materials and the processing, manufacturing, fabrication and construction. Concrete is what is predominantly used in this country, and that is the wrong approach. It is not the approach of Scandinavian countries or much of the US. Embodied carbon is not measured in Ireland. When something is not measured it is not reduced, so the motion calls for such measurement.

When we look at the jobs in the sector there is a huge opportunity in Ireland. A study by the Council for Forest Research and Development this month found that the economic contribution of forestry to Ireland is €2 billion per annum. We could increase that massively if we were to ramp up the construction element. The estimates for direct and indirect employment are 3,500 jobs for forestry and the harvesting sector and 5,900 jobs for the wood and wood products manufacturing sector. That shows a significant contribution to employment from forestry, and that is mostly in rural areas. Another motion we heard earlier today was about the greyhound industry and how its removal would impact rural Ireland. I do not believe it would. Employment in that industry certainly does not come anywhere close to the kinds of jobs that can be created from this, a green industry which has a positive impact on climate change.

This entire motion is based on and framed in the context of not only the climate action plans, and a new plan will be announced in the coming weeks, but also the climate action Act, which we passed very soon after we entered government. We know there is a commitment to increase afforestation and promote the use of alternative materials in construction, but what has not happened is the task force to ensure that that advances as quickly as possible. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, has announced €1.3 billion for forestry, the largest amount ever invested in forestry. The backbone of that investment and seeing a return on it has to be to have an industry around forestry. We have to make sure we have the right tree in the right place and for the right function, which is something the Minister of State always says. There is a place for wood in everything in Ireland. There is a place for it in nature, a place for it in respect of biodiversity and a place for it when it comes to jobs and to reducing our emissions. That is at the core of this motion.

I look forward to hearing the response from the Government, not just from the Minister of State's Department but also from the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. There is a key piece in each of those Ministries.

Lastly, in respect of education, there is a skilling up to be done in this area, just as there is across all areas of green skills. That is core to this because that number of jobs means that number of training positions, so it is important the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is part of this as well.

I will pass over now to my colleague, Senator Martin.