Jennifer Whitmore: Energy Crisis Is a Social Justice Crisis

I welcome this motion today and I thank the Green Party for bringing it forward and I absolutely agree that the energy crisis is the climate crisis but what I will also say is it is also a social justice crisis and the reason we are here, the reason why we have so many people who are at the mercy of global and international fossil fuel shocks is because this government and the previous government did not put in place plans to insulate communities, insulate homeowners from these energy shocks and it is not that we did not have warnings previously. We have already had a situation after the invasion of Ukraine where we have seen incredible price increases in our electricity, in our gas and it was at that time, it was at that time that the government should have put in place measures that would insulate and that would future-proof homes and ensure that those who were least able to weather these shocks, that they were protected from them. I am going to read, Minister, from a press release we in the Social Democrats put out in September 2022 where I called for the government to urgently ramp up investment in solar energy, to double the grants for solar panels, to include the Warmer Homes Scheme and give free panels to those people who were eligible for the Warmer Homes Scheme. I spoke about how it was a wasted opportunity by not implementing a proper and large-scale investment of solar. It was a wasted opportunity and a million homes in Ireland were eligible and suitable for solar panels. If the government had at that time listened, this country would be in a much better position to weather the current shock and it was a wasted opportunity of the previous government but I would call on this current government because Social Democrats only last week again reiterated our calls for a large-scale investment in solar so that everybody can avail of the benefits of it, that not just those who are financially secure but those who rely on supports, disability supports, fuel allowance and also those families who are working and who find it so difficult to invest in future-proofing their homes because they are just worried about paying rents, paying mortgages, paying childcare. People do not have that level of money sitting in their bank account that they can just use it for these and we would ask that the government support our calls in relation and indeed the calls in the motion today to do something when it comes to really invest in solar because we cannot continue to go through this cycle of energy shock and then failing people in our communities and placing the burden on them. I also want to talk, because it is Earth Day, about nature because I do not think we should be talking about climate and energy without also talking about nature. It is just also inextricably linked. Minister, I have worked and studied in the area of environmental protection since I was 17. I have worked in a multitude of areas and I must say, at this age, seeing where we are now and seeing how we have not used the last 30 or 40 years to actually protect our environment, I find it so frustrating. I have to say I am really sick and tired of hearing governments say that they are supporting climate action and nature protection and doing the complete opposite. This week or last week in the Dáil, we had a debate where the government is trying to undermine the Climate Act, the very Act that we brought in in the last Dáil to protect and to mitigate against the huge crisis that is the climate crisis. I am also sick and tired of seeing governments using the environment purely for photo opportunities and as greenwashing exercise. I am sick and tired of the disconnect between what is spoken in here and what happens on the ground. To give some very small illustrations of where we are going so wrong in this country, we have national parks where there is no management plan and no prioritisation of nature. We have protected areas where there is no protection. We have a Minister for Biodiversity who, every year, signs off on the hunting of endangered, red-listed birds and endangered and protected species. It just does not make sense. Compartmentalising nature from everything else that we do just does not work. It has to. Nature, climate and environment have to span every single portfolio, because unless we do it that way, we are never going to get this right. We are never going to make the inroads. We are going to leave people behind. We are going to leave the environment behind. Let me tell you, Minister, if we do not get this right, the environment will continue. It will just continue to regenerate. It is our lives that will be heavily impacted. It is our energy security, our food security, our mental health, our ability to engage with our environment, our neighbourhoods. It is all so, so linked. I would ask that, when you are sitting at the Cabinet table, you try to incorporate nature, try to incorporate the environment and climate change, because it is only then that we will actually manage to make the inroads and make the changes. We cannot separate nature out of everything else, Minister. It just does not work like that. Thank you.