Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House. It is great to have a debate on this issue. It is great to hear the Minister recount what happened, the details of which we will never see printed in the media. It is great to hear the work that was done by not just the Minister but also the background team, the civil servants, the lawyers and everyone working together to achieve what ultimately was not the full desired outcome but was a good outcome nonetheless.

As the Taoiseach has said, climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. It is fair to say that, in this country, young people are driving the agenda. They have brought all of us to the table to take this seriously. It is now a conversation happening in every household in the country. My parents are speaking about it. That was not happening five years ago. That is a marked change. My grandmother is speaking about it. She is in her 90s. That was not happening a few years ago. It is in every household now. It is fair to say it is on everyone's mind. We are all not only looking to what is happening at present, because we can see the loss of biodiversity in our own backyards, but also thinking about our children and our grandchildren. Certainly, I think about my son and the environment I want him to be able to live in. I want him to have access to clean air, clean water, good food and a sustainable way of living. We are all on the same page on this. It is worth acknowledging the work of the Green Party over many years. It was the only show in town for a very long time. The effects and impacts of the Green Party in government can be seen. It is good to see all of us collaborating and coalescing to achieve these goals.

There are several areas on which I want to focus. One is the retrofit programme. I met Minister recently on this issue. It is key to getting our homes more energy efficient. There are particular challenges with people accessing it because of the cost of retrofitting. Will the Minister do everything he can to make it as accessible as possible and reduce the financial burden on households that want to invest in retrofitting their homes, particularly older people who do not have the same access to finance or the ability to pay back over a longer term?

Another issue is farming. For a very long time farmers have been vilified in the climate agenda. They have really stepped up to the plate. They speak about it all of the time and they are doing everything they can to address the targets set for the sector. Other sectors also have targets that are equally challenging and I acknowledge this. I listened with interest to "CountryWide" on RTÉ radio on Saturday morning. There were interviews with farmers throughout the country. They were being asked how they felt about reducing their stock or their herds. The overwhelming response was that many of them, especially older farmers, were certainly interested in reducing their stock but did not want to leave the land altogether. They want to maintain some farming and some connection to the land. Interestingly, and it was quite stark, one farmer said he would be ashamed to see his land lie idle. We must take this on board. Many farmers want to play their part. Some are looking to reduce what they are doing. Most want to stay involved in farming in some way, and this is the approach to take.

Recently we met several of the companies working on offshore wind. The response I have received with regard to counties Mayo and Donegal is that the technology is not yet there and it is too rough and too windy in this part of the country. Yet for the first time we have seen a floating turbine off the coast of Aberdeen in Scotland. I imagine it is as windy and turbulent up there. Perhaps it is a little bit less windy. I do not know. In any event the message we get back from the industry is that the technology is there or thereabouts and certainly will be there in the coming years.

There is a lot of work to be done to plan and prepare so we can take the opportunities when they come. Recently I referred to companies that have left the west coast around Galway and Clare and went elsewhere because of the planning difficulties. Work must be done in the Department to prepare the ground for offshore wind throughout the country and not only in select parts. Let us do the preparation work for counties Mayo and Donegal now in anticipation that the technology is pretty much there. Even if it is not there right now, it certainly will be in the next five to ten years. It will take us the next decade to put the plans in place in any event and work with our local authorities.

The Minister understands why I want to raise the issue of the western rail corridor. We have particular challenges to meet in terms of emissions reductions. Huge reductions are required in the transport sector. A whole swathe of our country, an entire region in the west and north west, is never on any map. It never seems to be considered for public transport. We have a very limited rail service in some parts of the region. Some parts of the region have no rail service. Donegal does not have a train. In this day and age that is disgraceful. The limited service out of Mayo means it is not a viable option to use it for getting to work or medical appointments. It just does not have the frequency during the day to get people there and back as they need.

As the Minister knows, I have been working on the western rail corridor since 2014. Others have been there long before me. I was disappointed to see the Minister, who also has responsibility for transport, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, did not see fit to put forward the western rail corridor for inclusion in this EU TEN-T map. It was removed by the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, when he was Minister with responsibility for transport. We have been campaigning ever since to put it back on the map. It would be an acknowledgement by the Government that it is part of our core transport network. We believe it should be. Not only would it be a signal from the Government that it is serious about reinstating the rail line, it would also give us access to a pot of funding at EU level to which we do not have access because we are not on the map.

I reiterate my call once again to take seriously the request from an entire region to give us a small rail link between Galway and Mayo. It would open up opportunities for work, travel, education and health services. We need to reimagine how we think of rail services in the region. Galway is the city in our region. It is the city that drives our region in the same way Dublin does for Kildare. I know our population is different but it will grow if we invest in the region. We need a proper commuter service between Mayo and Galway. This is the aspiration. Ultimately, we want to link Galway to Derry and link this side of our country. All roads do not have to lead to Dublin. All rail lines do not have to lead to Dublin.