I thank the Minister of State. I take issue with the answer. He has said Irish Rail is to lead on this project. The solution to this serious issue is a couple of kilometres away from the rail track and really it should be with the OPW and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Confidence will be lost in the service between Limerick and Galway if this floods. We had 2.5 times the normal rainfall just in October and it is not unlikely that we will see flooding on this line like we saw back in 2014 and 2015.…

I acknowledge that it is a long-term project. The situation at the moment is that responsibility for the project is being passed between different Departments. That is a problem. We are two years in now and nothing has been done. A recent parliamentary question I submitted to the Department of Transport passed the buck again over to the OPW. Now we are hearing the buck being passed back again. It is not acceptable because if it keeps going on we are going to get flooding on the line. Everybody will accept a solutio…

What are the Department's plans to develop port infrastructure to enable the deployment of offshore wind farms, particularly along our west coast, in light of the report by Wind Energy Ireland which found that only Belfast is suitable?

I thank the Minister of State for her answer. I am particularly interested in the west. Galway and Limerick have a major role to play as we develop our offshore resource. This is strongly linked to the development of rail. This issue is not just a matter of offshore renewable energy but about shifting rail freight from east to west. There is a fantastic opportunity in the Minister of State’s neck of the woods with the western rail corridor to bring that infrastructure down the coast. We have good news on the Shanno…

I welcome the Minister of State’s response and I fully agree with the multi-port approach. I encourage the Government to leave no stone unturned in developing all our ports as quickly as possible. An important point to make about the development of these ports is that they are keystone projects in realising a wider and positive vision. We in this country can be accused of siloing many of our challenges, but the ports unlock a great deal of potential for the country to shift from being a carbon-intensive society. I …

As legislators we have the opportunity to ensure our policies and laws are fit for purpose. If this debate is anything to go by, we have a lot of work to do to protect our water. The most recent EPA report on water quality was published last month and it is not good news. Only about half of our rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters are in a satisfactory condition and the overall ecological health of our waters has declined in recent years. The analysis finds the main pressures on water quality agriculture, ph…

I would have been happy to give Deputy Bruton more time to expand on that point, if he needed it. I am glad he referred to data centres and the simplistic narratives we hear about them. I heard many of them while following the debate in my office, although they were not made by anybody in the Chamber now. On the idea that we have failed to develop offshore wind, while I agree we have had a lost decade or 15 years, I wonder what the contributions of some Government and Opposition parties have been on that issue in t…

It seems to me that we are on the cusp of changing how we do transport in this country. For 60 years, the rail system has been starved of investment. Unlike other countries, Ireland did not see a future for rail. It perceived that the future would involve a transport system based on private cars and, to some extent, city and intercity buses. In recent years, the Government has invested in rail, and Irish Rail is building up its capacity to develop a pipeline of new projects. One of the critical elements of expandin…

I thank the Minister for the answer. I am happy to hear him expand on the vision for rail freight and for rail in general. It is a very coherent and important vision for us to follow. It chimes incredibly well with the policy agenda and ambition of the Government. It is generally shared these days across the political spectrum. I was happy to hear the Minister mention the potential of the south east. Our colleague, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, will certainly welcome the Minister's words on the Wexford to Waterford line. I …

The Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action decided to waive pre-legislative scrutiny for this Bill. It was appropriate to do so. It was certainly not a unanimous decision but given that it is emergency legislation, when we were asked, I think that was the right thing to do. However, I must agree with Deputy Bacik that the committee should not have been in the position where it was asked at the eleventh hour to make this decision. We need to be more strategic about taking these decisions. That said, I rec…

I welcome the Bill. Last week, we had the very welcome news that the bike-to-work scheme is to be extended to €3,000 to enable people to purchase cargo bikes. There is empirical evidence that cargo bikes give at least some families the option to get rid of their car or second car. Many short trips that would be taken by car can and will be taken by bike or cargo bike with this measure, as well as others the Government has introduced. It is worth noting that nearly 40% of our transport emissions are caused by cars t…

Will the Minister outline whether the current EIA regulations are fit for purpose as a deterrent against the removal of hedgerows and other on-farm vegetation? Does he intend to revise the regulations to provide for greater environmental protections for rural landholdings?

While I welcome the reviews the Minister referenced, will he indicate the timeline for their completion? I also welcome his comments on the changes in the CAP, which have been well flagged. Under the EIA regulations that are in place, if one is removing a hedgerow with a length of 500 m or more or removing a field boundary, one must apply for screening, but there is otherwise no requirement to apply. This leaves out a lot of hedgerows straightaway and is a fundamental flaw in the current regulations. In the UK, the…

I agree with the Minister's thoughts. There is a completely new thinking, but we need to go a lot further. It is the case that all applicants, as the Minister said, receive an on-site inspection, but it is also the case that 95% of landowners who seek approval do get full permission. All that adds up to 2,000 km of hedgerows being removed every year, which is a conservative estimate made by the EPA. Hedgerows Ireland, an organisation that I would like to commend has produced research on the issue. It has done brill…

I welcome the Taoiseach's statement prior to the European Council meeting and the agenda for the meeting, which is to discuss Ukraine, energy, economic issues, external relations and the COP27 summit in a few weeks' time. I welcome the Taoiseach's points on Russia. Europe needs to maintain its steadfast support for the Ukrainian people. Ultimately, the Russian despot has to be defeated. I acknowledge our neutrality and status of military non-alignment, but we have to do everything we can in Ireland to help the Ukra…

What Europe is facing now is absolutely incredible. For example, Germany was dependent on Russian gas for 70% of its energy needs, and that has been shut off. What is being asked of Europe is incredible and Europe and Ireland are responding. Ireland can respond further, less so in the short term but more so in the medium and long term. We have an opportunity to develop our indigenous energy resource, not just for our needs but to help Europe in the long run. We can do that to become energy independent and also to s…

As the Taoiseach will be aware, in 2019 there were plebiscites in his home city of Cork and in Waterford and Limerick with respect to bringing in legislation for directly elected mayors for the cities. Cork and Waterford did not decide to go ahead with this but Limerick did. We are three and a half years on but there is no sight of the legislation. It seems that it has been deprioritised. The Taoiseach mentioned earlier that planning legislation is critically important for climate, energy and transport and so on, a…

Will the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science report on the initiatives he plans to encourage the recruitment of apprentices in the renewable energy sector, and will he make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed answer. It gives me a great deal of confidence to hear an answer like that because the challenge we have as a society is one of total reform as we take on this very significant and monumental challenge which is climate change. If we could fast-forward a few years, we could probably see that our energy, transport, housing and agriculture sectors will all look very different, but it is very much a question of the time and effort we put in now to training our young people…

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. I am very familiar with Skillnet Ireland. I met some of its people in the University of Limerick recently and they told me about the micro-credential programmes they have, which are very interesting and innovative. I welcome the Minister of State's answer. Something that has been reported recently, and certainly the employer representatives have mentioned it, is the National Training Fund, where there is €855 million this year, and it is predicted to increase to somethi…