John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I fear that some of the progressive moves we have made in Government will be repealed based on signals we are getting from some quarters in the Opposition.

Similarly funding for NGOs has been tripled. We have gone out of our way to assist environmental NGOs. We believe there is a place for debate. If there is a critique that we should be doing more, that is fine because we will step up to the plate and will do more on all these issues. Senator Bacik spoke about the Climate Change Bill 2009. As a lawyer, Senator Bacik will appreciate this. We have now got agreement from an international group of lawyers known as ClientEarth. That group approached the Green Party in Ireland because it was assisting the Australian Government which was about to introduce a climate change Bill but bottled it basically because of a climate change-sceptic Opposition.