Pringle: Climate Action Plan fails to address rural concerns

By Thomas Pringle
Updated: 19th January 2023

ndependent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, has criticised Climate Action Plan 2023 for failing to address rural concerns.

Addressing the Dáil this afternoon, Deputy Pringle said: “Climate change is destroying our planet in a very real and devastating way. And while we all contribute to it, not all of us will feel the effects in the same way. In fact, it has been shown that those who contribute the most, will be affected the least.

“How can we say we live in a fair and equal society when this is the case? How can we allow some of our citizens to suffer more than others? In the case of Ireland, this will be low-income families and rural communities who will suffer the most.

“The Climate Action Plan 2023 is full of contradictions. It aims to work towards solutions that are ‘meaningful, inclusive, fair and accessible’. Yet after reading the plan, it is clear that there is a real lack of rural approach and the very few mentions of rural communities in this plan are simply not grounded in reality,” he said.

The deputy raised his concerns during statements on Climate Action Plan 2023.

Deputy Pringle said: “For example, the plan references the national broadband plan, which it says ‘will ensure that households and businesses in rural parts of Ireland will have a similar level of connectivity as households and businesses in urban areas’ and that ‘for each new remote worker, an estimated average net saving of up to 10kWh per day will be achieved, reducing commuter transport and carbon emissions’.

“That certainly sounds great, but it is completely detached from the fact that a lot of areas in my constituency of Donegal do not have access to fibre broadband and will not have access until at least 2026. I’m not sure how this is ‘fair and accessible’ either, Minister.

“My constituents have been calling for broadband access for years now and every year this isn’t addressed is another year of rural depopulation and local business closures for my constituency,” he said.

The deputy said: “The plan makes one brief point on the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme and the only other mention of rural communities is the Rural Mobility Programme.”

Deputy Pringle said: “I am glad that the plan recognises that, ‘dispersed and low-density development has led to high levels of transport poverty in certain regions and for certain cohorts of society’; and that ‘is a particular challenge to rural communities’.

“But the challenge should be to improve the transport routes to ensure that people can be connected, and I don’t think that’s happening fast enough. I recognise that there is a plan in place to update transport routes, but we should really be focusing on free and accessible transport.

“I am also glad that we will see the establishment of a Just Transition Commission this year. I can only hope that they make a better attempt to address rural concerns than this plan does,” he said.