Senator John McGahon - speech from 17 Jul 2020

Minister, I'd first like to welcome to this House and congratulate you on your new role and as a spokesperson on climate, communications, energy and natural resources I'm really looking forward to working with alongside you in the next couple of years and indeed I was speaking with a former colleague of yours just a couple of hours ago in Dundalk, a former member of this House, Senator Mark Deary, who I worked very closely with on Louth County Council and had a wonderful relationship both with him and Councillor Marianne Butler so really looking forward to working with you Minister in the next couple of years and the legislation today as is pretty straight forward, it's pretty simple, we're repurposing the levy, the NOAA levy and directing it towards funding for much more worthwhile projects under the Climate Action Fund and the Climate Action Fund is going to support initiatives that are really going to contribute to the achievement of Ireland's climate and more importantly our energy targets and it offers the potential when I was looking at it last night it really offers the potential for interventions which you know without this fund the funding wouldn't be available for and I think that's a very important point that we all actually have to recognise when we think about that because these projects and the seven projects that we've been talking about they would not be able to go ahead otherwise without the funding from this particular body and I think that's very important to mention and Minister I was actually listening to the second stage speeches in the other house during the week in the convention centre and I actually felt it was quite disingenuous as well listening to some of the comments made by members there who tried to say that of the seven projects were a bit too I suppose Dublin centric but of course that fits into their narrative that they want to play to show that rural Ireland is somehow missing out and as someone who's from County Loud and the town of Dundalk I can certainly say that that is not the case with this legislation because and I'll be quite clear about it the expressions of interest from the Climate Action Fund were clear and just to quote it so I can put it on the record of this house the department is the department is the department is the department is the department is the department is not selecting or focusing any type of organisation project or technology or geographical area the CAF is not in the style of a tendering process instead it's up to the organisations themselves to apply what they believe is the best climate action idea what they believe is the best climate action idea and fundamentally the CAF is a competitive process in which the department seeks to support a project across a range of indicators in achieving a low carbon climate resilient economy that is what they said themselves in black and white so I think it's very disingenuous for members of the other place to try and suggest otherwise and indeed minister of the seven projects that were approved already three of them really stand out to mind for myself that I think are quite impressive the first one was the 15 million investment minister for the new hybrid power packs for the intercity rail cars this was already trialled and the investment is now going to be rolled out to all of our intercity rail fleet so that's taking anyone on a train from the Dawg into Dublin or Wexford into Dublin or Athlone into Dublin or Cork or Limerick equally and that's going to benefit that's going to really reduce diesel use it's going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and it's going to benefit thousands of communities at the same time equally minister the second point that I really liked about it was the local authority public lighting energy efficient project which is the concept of retrofitting three hundred twenty six hundred thousand non LED lights right around the country and I've already seen how effective this is in my own part of the world in County Louth where Louth County Council have embarked on a really ambitious project where they're replacing nearly all of them and they're doing so well at it and I really think that the county council there have to be commended about that project and the project alone and I think this is the most important point to mention about non LED lights the project alone is going to see an emission reduction of over 40,000 tons 40,000 tons of CO2 from an electricity generation per annum minister the third point that I wanted to raise about the seven projects which I think is really good and something I've always had a strong interest on throughout my time in politics is the 10 million for the ESB e-cars that's going to essentially help develop a nationwide charging system right across the country I think this is perhaps one of the most important parts of what the climate fund is actually going to be able to do because I think it's crucial that we even direct more funding towards this because I'm 29 years of age I look around at my own friends and I think that not until someone can realistically get from Dublin to Cork without battery anxiety or without the fear of if I get to Portlaoise and I go into charge is one of the charging stations not going to be working is someone going to be parking the charging station while they're having their lunch inside so the only way we can change the culture of people's minds to say that this is the way to go and bring people with us is to pump so much funding into electric charging vehicle areas so that the concept of battery anxiety will be a thing of the past that people won't even consider it when they're talking about buying an e-car so the more charging points we can create the quicker the better in my opinion because it will take an effort to change people's minds and to bring them along with us and the final point about that and it's actually a point I made when I was on Louth County Council recently is about I actually think it's very important that local authorities minister come to you with a roadmap of their own electoral of their own local authorities their own counties their own administration areas and say minister these if you give us x amount of money tomorrow morning this is where exactly where we are going to roll out our electric charging points and I think it would actually be an incumbent minister and you yourself and your department to turn around and say okay we're going to do this providing you put in x amount of charges bases and give them a time frame that they have to be completed by this point otherwise you lose the funding and that puts the onus back on the local authorities to really deliver this at a local level where with all due respect minister they know best so there are just three projects out of the seven that I mentioned that will benefit everybody on this island whether you're living in urban Dublin city centre or whether you're living up a side of the mountain down in Kerry it's going to benefit everybody and I think I really want to put that on the record of this house because I think it is so disingenuous for other people for their own political narratives to try and suggest to try and suggest otherwise minister finally just to wrap up and I know I have two minutes two minutes left unlike yesterday when the clock was going the other way but my point is no it's all right I'll be like Cicero I'll be brief as you've said yourself but to just really wrap up minister the point of this climate action fund and reducing this nowhere levy is so we can actually create way more projects that are so much more sustainable like the seven projects that have been ready outlined that people from communities can actually come to government come to the department and say we've got an idea let's go with it let's run with it it's such a it's such a wonderful way to engage local communities and it is definitely one of the big vehicles that we can use that's going to have a reduction on greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years in this country and I think it's important finally to stress that these projects would find it very difficult uh minister very difficult to find funding otherwise so minister in conclusion and to wrap up I think this is really forward-thinking legislation um uh as as senator fitzpatrick said it's quite technical as well but the point about it is and it's actually such a pleasure to have it in our really first week properly sitting in the senate because that shows the urgency behind this bill minister and shows how committed you are to it so minister I would like to say uh commend you for taking this bill to this house so quickly it's a much needed measure uh and I really would like to put on the record I find it very hard to see how anyone could disagree with it minister and the sooner we get it through this house the better so thank you