Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is always refreshing when the Minister joins us in the House because he speaks with such passion. He has done so again without notes. It comes naturally to him. He has been an advocate for most of his life - certainly from the time I got to know him - on this issue. As has been said, he became an overnight success at COP27. That expression is in recognition of the number of years these conferences have been ongoing. It is only in the past couple of years that the public have started to become engaged. We have achieved so much in Ireland in that now climate change is part of the narrative on a daily basis. It took a long time to get it there, but the Minister and those close to him are responsible for putting it on the national agenda.

The Minister, more than any of us, gets lots of slagging on social media sites. However, the truth is that he is committed to ensuring that our lives are lived in a more sustainable way. For a long time, climate change was the preserve of people who may have been referred to as tree huggers, academics and those who just talked about it. The truth is that every aspect of Irish society is now discussing how we can live our lives in a more sustainable way.

I was at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications recently where Michael O'Leary, whose business is aviation, rightly identified the impact air travel is having on carbon emissions. He went through what his company is doing in order to be more sustainable. That is welcome because every facet of Irish society is moving in that direction. From a Government perspective, we have to move more quickly, which, I know, is the Minister's ambition, but one of the biggest things the State could do is decarbonise our electricity network. The Minister visited County Clare recently where he met key personnel from the ESB to discuss transitioning the facility at Moneypoint away from the burning of coal. Moneypoint will become the onshore base for electricity generated off shore which will help to power our country. This, along with the decision of the Government with regard to the European interconnector, where we saw the Minister and the Taoiseach visit France recently to sign a contract with a French company for the development for an interconnector to the European grid, will make a profound difference to this country.

I want to go back to the issue of the capturing of offshore wind in the west of Ireland, bringing that power ashore at Moneypoint and the ecosystem that will develop around that. It will see the creation and generation of hydrogen, a fuel which will play a part in storing energy. It will also provide a baseline for sustainable fuels for the aviation and shipping sectors. What more can we do to enhance our ambition in that regard? We talk about 2029 and 2030, about planning permission and the passage of the Bill relating to foreshore licensing and so forth, but should we be driving further ahead and showing greater ambition? The Minister is putting in place the international policy framework and foundation around which all of this needs to happen, but as a State, can we do more? Can we show greater ambition and bring this to fruition quicker? A lot of our focus now is on offshore energy, but there was a time when the State had to support wind energy because it was considered expensive in comparison with oil, gas and coal. The invasion of Ukraine by Putin has changed that dynamic to such an extent that it is now the right thing to do financially, not to mention from a climate change perspective. It is right to generate electricity from wind because it is ultimately cheaper. We cannot allow it to wither over time because it is of such importance to local economies and is essential in terms of reducing carbon in the atmosphere.

In the time remaining, I want to speak about biodiversity, which is linked to this debate. The Minister and I, in another House, were responsible for the declaration of a climate change and biodiversity crisis, but I am somewhat concerned about the approach of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, who is completely on board, but there are efforts by some in his Department to water down what has happened in the Burren. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, is very familiar with the approach taken by farmers and interest groups connected with Burren Beo to protect and preserve the biodiversity of the area through the use of certain farm practices. The aim of the new agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, is to broaden agri-environmental supports, but this is diluting and weakening the work that is being done in the Burren by 300 or 400 farmers. We have a responsibility to protect and preserve that which has worked and I appeal to the Minister to bring whatever influence he has to bear on senior officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We must protect and preserve the biodiversity of the Burren, and the mechanisms to do so that have been developed there, for the interests of all.