Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the Minister is saying that he is open to further amendments around these areas. However, I do not accept the choice that he is giving us or at least I do not think the stark choice he is giving us is the right way to look at this, particularly if we talk about exceeding targets, saying it could damage our economic recovery. It sees the argument put forward by people concerned about climate change, namely, the need for serious, binding and effective targets; a proper system of reporting on the meeting of those targets; ensuring that there is a strategy to achieve targets and real accountability in that area; and overshooting the targets that might be set by the EU as a threat to the economy. It is quite the opposite. If we do not address climate change, the threat not just to our economy but our society will be far greater in the medium to longer term so I do not think we should pose it in those terms. We need to break from that mindset. Even now, one could argue that flooding and the impact of climate change are already having a huge cost for the economy, the Exchequer and indeed for agriculture.

Often we imagine we are defending agriculture against environmentalists when, in fact, that is the wrong way to look at it. If we do not address this issue, everyone in the entire economy will pay, including those involved in the farming sector. The logic behind the amendments is that we should be leaders in this area and should not engage in special pleading on behalf of particular sectors. We should not engage in special pleading with the European Union to duck out of targets in certain areas and argue that Ireland is a special case. We should be leaders in this regard because there is no more urgent and serious matter than runaway climate change and the need to address it. That is the logic behind the amendments. Obviously, given the restrictions on the amendments we can table in order that they will not be ruled out of order, to a large extent we are in the hands of the Minister. We can only make the arguments-----