I have listened carefully to the Deputies' contributions. We should bear in mind that the 2013 to 2030 effort-sharing decision, that is, the EU's plan to reduce its emissions by 20% during the last decade, succeeded and achieved what it set out to do. Emissions were reduced by 20%. That was a collective decision by all EU member states. Each member state, including Ireland, was given an amount it had to fulfil and Ireland fell short at the end on the amounts by which it was meant to reduce emissions in the last dec…

The handling of waste within Ireland and all other member states is subject to the provisions of the waste framework directive. The directive defines what is waste and requires that waste be managed in a manner that does not endanger human health or the environment; that does not pose a risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals; that does not cause a nuisance through noise or odours; and that does not adversely affect the countryside or places of special interest. Irish waste legislation is in accordance with the…

As the Senator said, there is a difference between salvage and scavenging. There are different circumstances. When a building is being knocked down, it has fireplaces, doors and windows which could be reused. That type of salvage is different from people climbing on top of a landfill, for example. Clearly a different level of risk is involved between mixed-up collected waste and something which may have been abandoned but is in perfectly good order. It is also different from informal salvage, people taking things f…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is close to my heart. Clean air is fundamental to our well-being and quality of life and is essential for the health of the environment on which we depend. People have no choice about the air they breathe. We have an important role in developing policies that deliver clean air, hence the high priority given to improving Ireland's air quality in the current programme for Government. The results of the Google Project Air View Dublin study are interesting. They show tha…

Overall, we have approximately 1,410 premature deaths from poor air quality or air pollution. It is a terrible problem. It is estimated by the European Environment Agency that 100 of those premature deaths are related to transport emissions rather than solid fuel. However, they are localised. As the Deputy mentioned, many of them are localised in his constituency. The Deputy asked for the fastest or most immediate things we can do. I think the pedestrianisation of Capel Street must have had a dramatic effect. There…

I thank the Acting Chair and Senators for the opportunity to present the Environmental Protection Agency (Emergency Electricity Generation) (Amendment) Bill 2023, which I am grateful to introduce to Seanad Éireann. Although many Senators will be familiar with the exceptional energy security challenges that face us, as the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, spoke about these matters when we were debating the Development (Emergency Electricity Generation) Act late last year, …

I thank Senators for their contributions. I will go through them, beginning with that of Senator Pauline O'Reilly. She and Senator Dooley both pointed out that the long-term solution here is more renewables. However, when there is a short-term problem, you do what needs to be done to keep the lights on. Senator Dooley spoke about what went wrong with the 2019 procurement. Regretting the past is obviously not helpful, but if we do not learn from the past, we are condemned to repeat our mistakes. An independent revie…

I thank the Senator. I have heard from EirGrid and the CRU, which are answerable to the environment committee the Senator sits on, that large energy users and data centres will be the first to have their power turned off in the event of an electricity shortage. That is right and it is why they are being required under the new guidelines to provide 100% backup of their systems. As the Senator can imagine, they are not happy about that. On transboundary consultation, the proposed legislation provides that there be a …

We are discussing an amendment but we have had a general discussion. I thank Senator McDowell for speaking so-----

I do not want to misquote Senator McDowell, but I think he said what we do in Ireland is not important for the planet. I think this was what was said.

Is it unfair to paraphrase the Senator that way?

Okay, that is fine.

I do not want to misquote the Senator, but what we do in Ireland is important for the planet. It is not that I think this but that I know it. There are only 5 million of us in Ireland, but we have a much higher usage per capita than the average use in the world. If every community of 5 million people globally took this attitude, if every city in China of 5 million people said "we are just 5 million people, so we might as well not do anything", then clearly we would never be able to solve any problem related to poll…

Let us get to the amendment. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 and the provisions therein are important and provide for public bodies to act in a manner consistent with the latest climate action plan and relevant plans and strategies "in so far as is practicable". The Government has introduced a number of measures. For example, we cut VAT on electricity and gas. That is not good for the climate. We are giving people €1.6 billion in cash into their electricity accounts to cushion the burden of t…

Fair enough.

I would never want to misrepresent someone or speak in a deprecatory way.

The Senator is absolutely right.

He specified the context. We need more dispatchable generation. It is not just for large energy users. As the Senator stated, it is also because the basis of climate action is the electrification of transport and heating systems and that means we need more dispatchable generation. That does not just involve emergency generators; it also involves batteries and interconnection with other countries, as well as more peaking gas power plants. We have clearly stated that we are commissioning 2 GW of gas by 2030 to be use…

As this is an EPA Bill, it does not concern issues of demand prioritisation. Such issues apply to EirGrid, in consultation with CRU. EirGrid has a prioritisation mechanism. I have heard its chief executive speak about it at meetings of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. I believe EirGrid is updating that into a more detailed programme, which it will finalise this year. The idea is that EirGrid will initially request large energy users to reduce their use and then mandate that they do so. Ultimat…

The principle at the moment is that households are the number one priority. After that, the objective is to source additional power from any smart sources that we can while managing the shortfall with voluntary demand-side measures. After that, it is about maintaining close co-operation with the UK and doing things like load shedding. Involuntary or mandatory curtailment is a last resort.