Mark Duffy (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to support Second Stage of the Air Pollution Bill 2025 on behalf of my Fine Gael colleagues.

The negative health implications of poor air quality are stark. The Minister of State identified 1,700 premature deaths per year due to poor air quality. That is a stark figure, which obviously has a major human impact on families and communities, but there is also the financial cost. The ESRI identified that just five air pollution-related conditions cost the State €56 million. That is an incredible figure. It is a well publicised and advertised fact that carbon monoxide is the silent killer. There is a lot of public information on that but carbon dioxide is also a silent killer. Its negative impact on communities is potentially even more prevalent. I welcome that this is being highlighted this evening and I hope it forms part of the general conversation around air quality and pollutants.

A carrot and stick approach is needed. I welcome measures to improve public transport fleets to reduce toxic emissions and the grants to retrofit houses, whether local authority houses or private homes. My personal experience of this, which I know is shared by many people, is that when out walking or playing football in a heavily built-up area on a winter’s night, there is a lot of fog and it causes pronounced difficulties in air quality. We have young and old people playing recreational and elite level sports on astroturf, football pitches and tracks. We need to be cognisant and mindful of the air quality that sports people are experiencing. I recall playing on astroturf in heavily built-up areas in the last couple of years. The negative experience of poor air quality is something I have reflected on.

We need to be conscious of fuel poverty. I was playing a game of football in an area of high deprivation identified by Pobal. We need to be proactive in encouraging retrofits and making sure we have a positive approach to improving air quality and that we do not target those who cannot afford retrofits or are most vulnerable to fuel poverty. They need to live and to heat their homes. Obviously, we want them to do that in a way that has a minimal impact on air quality, and this Bill provides for that, but discernment is needed to make sure we do not persecute people who are in difficult financial situations.

We need to improve monitoring, as provided for in the Bill, to have key data and statistics. We need to make sure we have that in places with amenity spaces where people are most likely to be affected by poor air quality, namely, near football pitches, playgrounds, schools and walking tracks where, especially during wintertime, fog creates smog and has a negative impact. That could be a very positive outcome of the Bill that brings people on a journey to a cleaner, greener future and supports energy retrofits.

A positive measure we have worked on in Ballina is the revitalisation of our town, in particular laneways. I recently worked on a project called Cascade in my role as a county councillor where I worked with Ireland’s greenest town. We revitalised a laneway in the town and created a green wall with a beautiful space of 17 sq. m. The environmental impact was the equivalent of extracting carbon dioxide from five mature trees. We have an opportunity to improve the quality of air in our towns, while also improving the aesthetics of towns and making them more beautiful places to live, breathe and work in. We need to highlight the positives of many urban areas where we have green spaces. We need to protect those spaces and encourage more interventions in urban greening. In Ballina, we have Belleek Woods, which only yesterday received €200,000 from the outdoor recreational scheme. It is about encouraging people to use those spaces but also about protecting air quality. We need to think of the lungs of each town and village. The example from my home town and community is a very positive place that, unknown to people, is having a positive impact on air quality.

I support the Bill and its measures. There is a great opportunity here to bring people on a journey. Strong enforcement measures are needed for the 0.01% who do not play ball and are bad-faith actors. We must also be conscious of people who are in fuel poverty and make sure that we target such homeowners and residents with a positive approach to retrofitting in order that we have less fossil fuel burning and a shift towards heat pumps and fuel efficient practices. These measures can bring people on a journey, improve air quality, improve the quality of life of the people living in the houses and improve the beauty of our towns and villages.

We can be very constructive and proactive with this Bill if it is interpreted adequately by local authorities. They need to be given powers so that if councillors are experiencing issues on the ground, there is someone they can talk to and they can act quickly. Conditions like asthma can be very pronounced when air quality is low. I thank the Minister of State for his work on this. I support the Bill.