We are at risk here of spending a lot of time on whataboutery. We talk to different people and they give us different perspectives, while the situation for passengers and workers on public transport continues to deteriorate. We do not have much rail in my county but we have a lot of buses. Navan services in particular have been pointed out by the National Bus and Rail Union, NBRU, as having real challenges. Rather than backbench and Opposition Deputies talking around the houses on this matter, the Government needs …

Go raibh maith agat. We only have to look at what Go-Ahead Ireland and Dublin Bus said at the transport committee the other day. I have stood with Dublin Bus workers who have 40 years' experience with it; a lifetime's experience and dedication. Go-Ahead Ireland reports a 25% staff turnover annually from a staff of 500. That tells you everything you need to know. It is about the terms and conditions of employment. They need to be addressed.

Will the Minister outline the commitments he will seek from international counterparts at COP27, with particular reference to climate ambition, climate finance, loss and damage, and fossil fuel non-proliferation? Will he make a statement on the matter?

The Minister might clarify the point about new licences. It was reported that a licence was issued or extended last week. I ask him to pick up on the concern about the potential of the Energy Charter Treaty and the comeback that energy companies might have. The question I wanted to raise, however, is about climate finance and the commitment to €225 million per annum from 2025. What is the commitment for 2022? We heard at a meeting of the Committee on Environment and Climate Action that the best estimate for Ireland…

We had a very helpful and informative session at the Committee on Environment and Climate Action, which is what prompted me to ask a number of these questions. The issue of the quality and quantity of climate finance was raised and, as the Minister said, Ireland was commended on the quality, but it was said the quantity is a different story. I will be happy to send those figures from Christian Aid and Trócaire to the Minister. Regarding Ireland's requirement to submit its long-term strategy to the European Commissi…

It was about a long-term strategy.

Why has the number of attic and cavity insulation works decreased so dramatically in recent years? Does the Minister accept that approximately 165,000 homes have no such works completed and that in the region of 500,000 homes could benefit from such improvement works? Will he increase the 80% grant and reduce the administrative burden for accessing these supports in light of the urgent climate, energy and cost of living crises and to accelerate the roll-out of shallow retrofits?

As is always the case with retrofitting, there is a significant volume of figures. Some attention to detail is required in order to drill down into them. I repeat a point I made previously, namely, that it is not entirely impressive to continually reference a benchmark of last year when we had a lockdown. In that light, an increase of 150% is not as impressive as it might sound. The Minister referred to the SEAI's expectation that 20,000 attic insulations will be completed by the end of the year. In 2011, we comple…

There are a couple of things to watch. One is the amount of work completed. My understanding is that the target for this year was 27,800, not 27,000. Regarding the better energy warmer homes scheme, the SEAI indicated to us that it would get in the region of 4,000 rather than 4,800. Let us keep an eye on those. We need to talk about cold homes and the people we are lifting out of energy poverty as much as the targets that are being hit. There is a real opportunity in these shallow retrofits to do that but there nee…

This question is to ask the Minister if he has engaged with a company, EnergyCloud, and its partners with a view to expanding its pilot programme, which uses surplus wind energy to provide households at risk of fuel poverty with hot water and if he will make a statement on the matter.

In terms of the outline, the Minister is correct. EnergyCloud is working with Clúid Housing. Explicitly, it is taking what would otherwise be waste renewable energy, mostly, during the night, and heating the hot water tanks in the homes of many people on their pilot. It said, as recently as Sunday night, that had it the capacity at scale it could have heated, because of the amount of surplus wind energy, 1.8 million hot water tanks in homes across the State. That is, obviously, the upper end, but it gives one the s…

I would ask the Minister and his Department officials to meet with EnergyCloud and for the Minister to take a personal interest in this. There is a pilot under way. There are significant, serious and credible stakeholders involved in this who are committed to it and who have got the pilot up and running. It is already proving a success. The pilot has a tangible benefit to those households that are part of it. It is a significant opportunity. I would appeal to the Minister to take a personal interest in it and to co…

First, it is completely disingenuous for the Minister to suggest what he did. Many people are not familiar with what is happening with the regulator in the North and with the System Operator for Northern Ireland, SONI, and EirGrid. To suggest Sinn Féin is part of it is completely disingenuous and I ask the Minister to withdraw it. He knows it well in terms of the politics in the North. Similarly with regard to the North-South interconnector, it does not take a genius to work out this is a project that has been dela…

Will the Minister provide a publication date for the McCarthy review into what went wrong regarding the electricity generation capacity shortfall which the State is now facing and make a statement on the matter?

Following the Minister's conversation yesterday, will be a specific focus on a review of the T-4 option. There has been considerable discussion on this. Some 500 MW were not delivered, 400 MW of which related to the ESB. Will that be included in the review? Is it not entirely clear from the terms of reference whether that will be the case? On a related matter, I ask the Minister for an update on emergency generation. We had the turf and EirGrid Bills and a recent piece on planning exemptions. Is that progressing ap…

I presume public consultation will not help those projects that are currently in the system and are due to deliver in the middle of next year. I ask the Minister to give us some assurance on that and what type of intervention might be needed to move that on. One of the issues Mr. McCarthy is dealing with is data centres. I understand that a number of weeks ago the Minister wrote to Gas Networks Ireland, GNI, and asked it not to enter into any more contracts with gas dependent data centres. There was a question mark…

Do we need legislation?

The next time the Dáil sits, COP27 will be under way. The conference will hear that greenhouse gas emissions were at record levels last year. Ireland has ambitious targets that are agreed. They include a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030. To achieve that, offshore wind will play a significant role. Our ports will also play a significant role but they will need to be ready. We know they sought funding through the Connecting Europe Facility, CEF, but they were not successful. We do not have a port that is ready for …

The war in Ukraine has exposed how vulnerable this State is to volatility in the international energy markets and reinforced the need to radically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and become energy-independent. Ireland imports a little over 70% of the energy we use and this is well over the EU average of 58%. Oil accounts for 45% of primary energy needs and gas for a further 34%. All of the oil used in Ireland is imported, as is three quarters of our gas. This highlights our massive reliance on others to keep …

It is ironic. Such is the curtailed nature of this whole debate, the Minister of State cannot deliver the most basic of remarks reflecting the contents of the Bill within the guillotined time he has. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, knows how we feel on this side of the House on so many occasions when it comes to legislation and emergency legislation from the Minister. This is yet more emergency legislation that is being rushed through by the Government due to the unmitigated failure to manage ou…