Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the climate action plan. As a Sinn Féin member of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, I am acutely aware we are no longer working to prevent climate change. What we are trying to do now is mitigate the impact and keep temperatures as low as possible and any increase as slow as possible. Here in the EU we have had heatwaves, droughts, fire storms, landslides and flooding. Even the temperature anomalies we experienced over Christmas showed that climate change has us firmly in its grip, with experts saying we are already experiencing now what they had thought would happen much further down the line.

Our task as legislators, and indeed as citizens, is to ensure that humanity, our so-called civilisation, can continue to exist on Earth, with all its seasons, habitats, flora and fauna and all the things that we took for granted as kids growing up. We hope we will keep these intact for our grandchildren too. With this action plan, though, I am a little worried. I remember only a couple of years ago when, in complete defiance of the science, the current Taoiseach spoke about climate change as if it was something kind of positive that might help us to keep our bills down. As such, I do not envy the Minister's position. This exposes a plastic, populist, soundbite-driven, headline-grabbing approach to climate, as with everything else, including housing, health, refugees. Frankly, the shallow approach has nothing to offer the State or, indeed, the world in the context of the challenges we face.

We agree with the objective of cutting emissions by 51% by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. It is perfectly clear, however, that the Government's plan is not working and that we need new and far more dynamic climate approaches. Despite the fact that our carbon budget must fall by 4.8% in each year from 2021 to 2025, far from falling in 2021, emissions rose by 5.4%. The Government is kidding nobody but itself. I was reminded this morning that far from imagining ourselves as this greener than green island in terms of ecological integrity, Ireland is considered to be one of the most depleted countries in Europe as regards biodiversity and rewilding.

I worry that there is a residual sense in Government that our being a so-called "small open trading economy" will somehow trump what the climate scientist, Professor Kevin Anderson, who came in to us at committee, calls "the molecules of climate change". The molecules of climate change are coming for us whether we are ready for them or not. Sinn Féin is planning across all our Departments because climate effects everything - health, housing, transport, school buses, how we grow our food, how we heat our homes and especially how we get to work around public transport - and that is key to the climate plan.

I am starting to feel sorry for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, because I have his heart broken talking about the appalling state of the buses in north Kildare for people trying to get to work and for my constituents trying to travel to Maynooth University in my constituency. My constituents are desperate to do their bit for climate by getting out of their cars and onto public transport because they see what their children are facing and they want to be able to mitigate it as much as possible but the State must do its bit in return. The bus in north Kildare is either late or a no show. It sails pass them full, with people packed down the aisles and the bus nearly hitting the floor. Buses might seem like a small issue in the climate change plan but it is a significant issue because the poor service is forcing people back into their cars when they know in their heart and soul that they should not be driving. Many of them do not want to drive.

My comrades, Deputies O'Rourke, Quinlivan and Guirke, and I introduced a Bill on the need for a hydrogen strategy last year which, I am delighted, passed Second Stage on 14 January. It might sound a bit buzzy to talk about hydrogen in the future the Government loves to live in but we really need a hydrogen strategy. My party's Bill is just through Second Stage and I ask the Minister to have a look at it.

My party's plan to give free public transport to under 18s is ready to go. That way the public transport is the no-brainer option and it gets young people into the habit of using public transport and not buying a car. I have spoken to the Minister about that previously. They cannot afford electric vehicles. They are buying the old banger if the bus is not reliable. We have to get the essentials right and we need proper joined-up thinking.

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