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

If it takes seven or 11 years for a company's application to be completed, either for an undertaking or a lease, how does it fit into the premise that we must gradually wean ourselves off CO2 emissions and a reliance on carbon fuels? As Professor John Sweeney demonstrated so well in his presentation, the period from when the licence is first issued through the various stages until the carbon fuel is useable is 25 to 40 years. If companies or the Department are sitting on licences for another decade on top of that, that effectively means ignoring the Paris Agreement and the idea that we have to move to carbon-free energy by 2050 meaning the planet will burn up and there will be destruction of habitats and humans. That is what I am trying to tease out. The approach is one of burying one's head in the sand and pretending that it is not happening and going on as though it is business as usual. That is why this Bill is before the House. It can no longer be business as usual. We must wake up and smell the coffee, and get away from our addiction to carbon fuel.