Mr. Cian Parry:

Everyone who has spoken before me has highlighted the harrowing danger our generation faces in the coming decades, as well as the appetite among young people to really change things. The reason Greta Thunberg inspired 15,000 people in Ireland and 1.3 million students globally to strike from school in what was probably the biggest school students' strike in history was that she did not sugar-coat things. She did not say everything is going to be okay because we are going to sort it out by agreeing to something at this conference or that committee. She said we are doing catastrophic damage to our climate and our ecosystems and we are in big trouble. It is also worth remembering that on the day of the strike, our Taoiseach said he found the school strikers inspiring. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment attended the march on the day. However, I think I can say that all of us here were extremely disappointed when the Government hypocritically voted against the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018. If we are to stay below 2°C degrees of warming we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. I would like those present who voted against that Bill to give us a good explanation of why they did so.