Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 May 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

Climate Change

Photo of Maire DevineMaire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I am still a member of the Joint Committee on Climate Action. We were the black sheep of the committee when we voted against the carbon tax. The committee has done 90% of its work collaboratively, but we were concerned about the just transition and the tax's imposition on less fortunate people who are struggling.

I would like the witnesses to expand on another point. There is an emergency in our public health system because of climate change, and it will be even more harmful for communities tomorrow. This is about communicating with communities not only about heatwaves, floods, storms and the resultant deaths, but about the day in, day out worldwide epidemic of asthma, respiratory tract infections and diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. Many of these have to do with pollution, for example, the quality of the water that we drink. According to the World Health Organization, WHO, this threat costs many billions of dollars and causes millions of deaths per year. The WHO believes that will only increase. Should we declare this an emergency alongside climate change?

We have received representations from the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, INHFA. It made an important statement that has stuck with me, namely, that we must rethink how we feed the world. In the 1960s and 1970s, we did not have meat with every meal. We could not afford it, as it was a luxury. However, it has become so commonplace now that we expect it even though it is responsible for much of the destruction of the environment and our bodies' health.

When one sits down in a canteen, bistro or café, everything is packaged. When did we stop being communal and sharing sugar bowls and milk jugs? These simple points seem stupid, but they are down to hazard analysis and critical control point, HACCP, legislation. We must revisit it, as it is so clinical and clean that it is damaging us, in that we are not being exposed to stuff and material is being wasted. It is nonsensical that we all just sit around with sachets that we tear apart, adding to the destruction. The global scale is larger, but I am interested in this matter.

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