Senator Gerard P. Craughwell - speech from 17 Jul 2020

Thank you very much. I doubt if I will take eight minutes, I want to welcome the Minister's House and congratulate him on his elevation. We will miss you on the corridors over in LH2000. I agree with the speakers that have said that the title of this legislation is somewhat confusing to the ordinary individual and I would support Senator Ward on the need for a consolidated piece of legislation in the not too distant future. Minister, there is a lot of talk about retrofitting, particularly when we look towards the Borden and Mourne workers and the like. I walk around South Dublin and I watch new developments and I have to congratulate the construction industry in the way in which they have tried to build houses that are more green, more eco-friendly, etc. When I think about retrofitting, I was talking recently to a relative of mine and I said, you know, I'm thinking of changing my windows again and the response I got was, sure, at your age you might as well leave it for the next guy. And when you think about the costs involved and the people who desperately need to retrofit their properties, by and large, they are in the more elderly age group in the country. And it struck me that when I visited Finland a couple of years ago, the further education and training sector are actively involved in the community in work like retrofitting. As a former trade unionist, I do realise this would cause problems, but I think there may be a scope to bring in something like what used to be the old FOSS projects years ago where community work was done under the auspices of FOSS by trainees with respect to retrofitting houses for the elderly. Because the costs involved are prohibitive and they simply couldn't afford to do it, and why should they be left out of the loop when it comes to retrofitting their properties? So I'd ask the Minister to maybe engage with your colleague in education and see if there's a way in which we could bring together training, education and training into the area of retrofitting properties and making them more eco-friendly. A lot of talk about electric cars, a lot of people talking about electric cars, both in this house and outside of this house, and I'm 100% supportive of this. However, I do want us to be a little bit more realistic at the cost, the human cost, of some of the raw materials that are required in the building of electric vehicles. I do want us to be honest about the carbon footprint of the cost of manufacturing an electric car. I've heard estimates that it takes up to 10 years to write off the carbon footprint for the manufacturing process. Very few people in this country have a car that's over 10 years old, and if they do, they're going to be levied by an insurance company because the car is too old. So from that point of view, I think we've got to have a more honest debate in the area of electronic vehicles and them replacing petrol or diesel vehicles. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I'm 100% supportive of it, but I think we've got to be more honest about the actual costs, both in human terms and in ecological terms. And finally, Minister, you'll be aware of the fact that last year I took two wheels to cycle around Dublin to try it out for myself. I hadn't sat on a bicycle for possibly 50 years, and the experience was horrific as I travelled around Dublin. Now, in recent days, I have seen people who are experienced cyclists bringing their younger children onto the roads with bicycles. And one of the interesting ones that came up over the last few days was a cycleway where young novice cyclists were being brought by parents to experience cycling and to become competent in cycling, only to find that it was a racetrack for more competent cyclists. And I'm not too sure what we can do about that, other than maybe to look at bylaws and whatever else that might be changed. But at least we can make the statement in this house that cycleways are for people to travel in sort of a normal cycling capacity. They are not raceways. If you want to race fellow cyclists, find a track somewhere or get out on the main road. But for God's sake, don't put young children and novice cyclists in danger as you race across some cycleway that was not constructed for that purpose. I do think the cycle to work scheme has to be extended. And we have to bring in electronic propelled bicycles for the more elderly person like myself. The two days I give up on a bicycle, my legs are still reeling from it. So there, it would have been nice to have the bicycle assisted by electric power. So I think we need to look at how we can subvent or grant aid further to get more and more people onto the bicycles. And I think that's something that will fall into your remission. I know you will be 100% committed to it. So I wish you well in your portfolio. And hopefully you might bring the educational issue I spoke of to the relevant minister. Thank you very much for letting me in, Cire. Thank you.