Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In the same week that thee was another serious warning about climate change from the EU’s Copernicus programme, which told us about the catastrophic challenge we were facing, is it not extraordinary that the Green Party’s leader – a member of the Government – would take a legal challenge against the Swiss women activists who won a court case and showed that the high emissions governments were responsible for were a threat to their health because of their gender and age? I fall into that category. Is Eamon Ryan afraid that women like me might be able to take him to court because of his failure to reach emissions targets? Is it not time that this Government, including Eamon Ryan, issued an apology to those women for daring to challenge them? When the Government is supposed to be doing everything it can on climate action, it challenges those women in a legal case in Switzerland. This is outrageous. The women are known colloquially as the Swiss grannies, but they are actually proud older women who are fighting to stop climate change.

See this speech in context