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

The Minister relies on arguments which do not stand up to scrutiny. He is wrong to say we did not discuss a lot of things at the scrutiny stage. We discussed many of the things he feels are missing from the Bill. For example, we discussed the savings we would make by minimising the environmental damage that would be done if we extracted more oil and gas from the seas and by reducing our CO2 emissions. It would force the State to focus on renewable alternatives and stop the fantasy that we can continue to explore in the hope of finding more gas and oil. More importantly, since the scrutiny stage took place, the IPCC's special report has been published and had a major impact on the discourse. We must take it into account. It warns that we have perhaps 12 years to achieve radical reductions to avert a temperature rise of 1.5o or 2o. That is the background against which we need to consider the decisions we make today. I appeal to the honour and integrity of all Deputies and Senators attending to prioritise that urgency which has been reiterated time and time again on the future of planet.

Some issues were raised with me on the phone about the drafting of the report. I have no problem with redrafting it to make it shorter and legally and linguistically correct. However, the only thing that matters today is whether we agree to allow the Bill to proceed to the next Stage. That is the real discussion we have to have.

We must deal with amendments proposed by Senator McDowell and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, himself. The Minister of State quoted the International Energy Agency's report but this is not aligned with the Paris Agreement. The agency has said itself that if the report were implemented, it would be far from sufficient to avoid severe climate change impacts. The report would see global temperatures rise by at least 2o if not 3o. The Minister of State said the IPCC recommended that countries should expand their production. However, the IPCC does not advise on anything, it simply reports that the scenarios that may face us in future are very dangerous indeed. If oil and gas production must decline globally, no country should be expanding it. In other words, the science settled at Paris and beforehand that 80% of known fossil fuels must remain in the ground remains the case. Nothing has changed. The Minister of State appears to be arguing that as long as there is some kind of market for oil and gas, it is fine for Ireland to develop new fields. That is absolutely illogical given that consumption of the oil and gas fields that are already developed still puts us at risk of overheating the planet. Our point and effort is to reduce our consumption of all fossil fuels.

The IPCC's recent report does not suggest there is a role for gas given the Paris goals. Rather, it states that a very low emissions pathway must be part of what we have in the transition from coal and natural gas in the energy sector. At the detailed scrutiny stage, we had evidence from experts that our Bill would help Ireland reach its targets and that it would be difficult for us to achieve those targets if we permitted further oil and gas exploration. The Minister of State warns in his amendments of the legal impacts of restricting contracts. However, this is a good argument as to why the Bill should proceed. If the State continues to issue further contracts and licences for exploration, it will have incurred legal liabilities at that point in the future when this has to stop. It places the country at greater legal risk than it is already at. Exploration industry practices are causing serious damage to marine life. The Minister of State argues about the threat to potential jobs but at 268, very few jobs are provided by the exploration of oil and gas compared to the 11,000 jobs in the marine and fishing industry which exploration puts at risk.

The major issue today is whether we will make a decision to allow the Bill to proceed to the next Stage. At the next Stage, amendments can be made to address all of the issues being raised. It is important to allow the Bill to proceed.