Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta O'Gorman agus an Comhaontas Glas as an rún den scoth seo a chur chun cinn. Tá sé tráthúil agus Lá Domhanda na Cruinne á cheiliúradh againn inniu. Tacóidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis an rún. This motion provides a stark picture of just how far we have slipped and continue to slip in terms of our climate goals. I have been really struck by how little emphasis the Government has placed on our response to what is the greatest existential crisis we face not just as a country but as a planet, and it is a climate and biodiversity crisis. I was listening to the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan's, comments earlier about the lack of focus on biodiversity in the Opposition. That could be not be further from the truth and I am disappointed the Minister of State is not here for this. This Government, which the Minister of State is a part of, is determined to systematically destroy biodiversity in this country by ignoring and actively disapplying environmental laws and environmental considerations when it comes to critical infrastructure. The Government is scapegoating environmental law for its own failures to deliver and undermining laws that were designed to protect our biodiversity and our natural environment. This Government wants to import hugely polluting fracked gas via a new LNG terminal. These two issues alone have huge impacts on our biodiversity and we are fighting against this in opposition all the time. This Government has also extended the nitrates directive, despite the fact that the quality of water in our waterways and lakes continues to decline. At the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy, which I am privileged to be a part of, we have tried to shine a light on the huge destruction of biodiversity and nature going on in various locations like Lady's Island Lake in Wexford and the Blackwater river in Cork. We have investigated the large-scale, illegal commercial extraction of peat for export and profit, destroying our bogs and peatland habitats, as well as undermining our vital carbon sinks. The committee has investigated the EU's proposal to eliminate the LIFE programme, the only dedicated fund in Europe for nature restoration and a scheme that has major positive impacts on biodiversity and nature restoration projects across Ireland. Later today, we will be looking into salmon conservation. I have not seen the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, at any of our climate committee hearings on biodiversity. As the Chief Whip said to another Deputy yesterday, you do not need to be a member of committee to attend it. We would welcome the Minister of State's input. I know he has a genuine passion for and dedication to biodiversity and nature. I would like to support him in his role but I would suggest that rather than criticising the Opposition, his efforts would be better placed in trying to ensure that our Government focuses on biodiversity issues being raised by the Opposition and regularly at the climate committee on a cross-party basis. He should ensure that the EPA, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, county councils and other institutions are resourced to effectively enforce our climate and nature laws. What we have seen from this Government over the past year and a half is climate backsliding, both in terms of our level of ambition and in terms of the actual numbers. Of course, rhetorically this Government remains committed to our climate ambitions and it recognises the importance of decarbonising our economy and our energy sector and so on, but it undermines it every day of the week. It is laid out plainly in this motion and I commend Deputy O'Gorman on putting together a compilation of this Government's willful failures, its greatest hits when it comes to climate, energy and the environment. Alarm bells have been going off more or less since day one of this Government. Let us take the removal of the 2:1 spending ratio on public transport to new roads in the programme for Government, for example. Clearly, this is a very regressive move, particularly given the positive steps that had been taken by the previous Government in the investment and roll-out of more public transport services in rural areas, the reduction in fares, etc. Transport remains the second highest emitting sector in our economy. Decarbonising it to the greatest extent possible would go a long way to helping us reach our climate goals, not to mention the associated public health and quality-of-life benefits and the improvements it could have on congestion on our roads. However, at a time when we are trying to see a modal shift away from private car use towards greener, more sustainable modes of transport like buses, rail, cycling, walking and so on, the Government's major change in policy was to pour more concrete and tar, which is just a bit depressing. Public transport projects like DART+ Southwest, projects that would have a real positive impact on people's lives, are unfortunately just getting pushed back. Even on a more local level for me and for the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, we have heard absolutely nothing about the programme for Government commitment to carry out a new independent feasibility study for an extension of a metro out to Dublin South West. It is looking like we will finally be able to say with some degree of confidence that construction on the MetroLink will begin soon and that is very welcome, but we now need to start looking ahead and we should be looking in the direction of Dublin South West. My frustration with these delays and the Government's apparent lack of urgency in delivering these public transport projects is not purely from a climate perspective. Reliable, efficient and affordable public transport is a quality-of-life issue too, and our cities are completely gridlocked. Dublin is the third most congested city in the world and people are wasting hours of their lives sitting in traffic every day, every week. At the end of last year,Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, threw up the white flag on the M50, effectively saying there is nothing more it can do to address traffic congestion. A Galway bypass has recently been approved. This will be welcome in the short term but what happens when that road inevitably gets clogged with more traffic just like the M50 and every road we build? Where is the plan for the Galway Luas? Where is the plan for better buses, like the express service from Oranmore to the city centre that Councillor Helen Ogbu is pushing for? We saw the plan for the Cork Luas published last week, which is great but we need to see urgency from the Government to get it delivered. Energy is, of course, on everyone's mind at the moment. In the Labour Party we have been clear that this needs to be a moment of revolution in our energy system. What we are experiencing at present is not an energy crisis; it is a fossil fuel crisis. Many of us have been sounding the alarm about our dependence on oil and gas for years from a climate perspective, but the last number of weeks have illustrated in no uncertain terms that there are also financial costs associated with our continued dependence on oil and gas. That is aside from any fines we might get from the EU for not reaching our climate targets. Ordinary workers, households and small businesses are now paying the price for our overreliance on dirty fossil fuels. I was really glad to hear an acknowledgement from the Tánaiste yesterday morning that our dependence on fossil fuels is not sustainable, but the inertia we have seen in this area so far can no longer be tolerated. The events of the last few weeks have exposed just how scandalous it is that we have not added a single watt of energy from offshore wind to our grid in 20 years. Our most abundant renewable resource remains largely untapped offshore. We are certainly not going to reach our 2030 target, which was set in the previous programme for Government and the 2021 climate action plan of achieving 5 GW of offshore renewable capacity by 2030. The Minister is now framing that target to deliver 5 GW as being to have them under construction by 2030. That seems to be the best we can hope for. There has been no urgency to build up our renewable capacity. No great effort has been made to wean us off the fossil fuels that are not just harming our environment but causing real financial pain for workers and families up and down the country. The latest exercise in climate backsliding we have seen from this Government is an attack on our climate laws. It does not want to bother with the climate Act any more. It is just an inconvenience. Instead of addressing our infrastructure deficits, the Government is scapegoating environmental concerns and judicial reviews. There are any number of reasons that it takes time to deliver large projects here but dumping on environmentalists and environmental law is just dishonest. The Government is looking for someone or something to blame for its failure to properly resource our planning authorities, regulatory bodies and courts over the last ten years. None of the delays to the national children's hospital will be because of environmental objections. Section 15 of the climate Act is there to ensure that our public bodies account for the fact that we are living through a climate and biodiversity crisis and that the decisions we take now will determine whether things get better or worse. There are also serious constitutional questions about this move. If it is to be the case that a designation by the Minister or the Government means that a core statutory duty, such as that contained in section 15 of the climate Act, can be disapplied, there would essentially be unfettered discretion, enabling selective exemption from legislation. Such a power has already been tested in the Supreme Court, where the case for it failed. Essentially, if the Bill allows the Executive to decide which projects are critical and therefore freed from climate constraints, the Government is effectively deciding when and to whom the law applies. That is not acceptable. This Government has unfortunately shown a total disregard for our existing laws, particularly environmental provisions. I will reiterate my strong support for this motion. I could go on but I will finish by again stating that the story of this Government when it comes to climate is one of backsliding, a lack of seriousness and great rhetoric that is then undermined in practical actions. It is a story of a government without ambition on climate.

Sentiment score: 0.06