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

I thank Mr. Carroll for his presentation. There has been quite a lot of criticism of the language of the Bill, as it is frequently very vague. There are many questions as to why that is. For example, it uses the phrase "have regard to" 11 times and "may" 43 times. In comparison, the Bills that have been issued in New Zealand and Scotland use much more determined language. Instead of using words like "pursue", they use "achieve". Is the reason for this vague language to allow loopholes for the Government in case it is legally challenged in the future if it fails to deliver on the emissions cuts?

My second question is about just transition. Mr. Carroll spoke about bringing people along but there is no mention of just transition in the Bill. From my understanding, in order to achieve a reduction in emissions one has to bring people along through just transition because climate change is also very much a matter of social justice rather than just science. We need to bring people, like the Bord na Móna workers and those who need retrofitting of their homes, with us. Why is the question of just transition deliberately left out of the Bill? Is it just an error?

There is a provision for gender balance and so on on the Climate Change Advisory Council but there is no provision for representatives of campaigns, of which there are many, around biodiversity, ecology and climate change, representatives of trade unions or workers who may be affected by the changes that this Bill will hopefully bring in.

Finally, the programme for Government refers to a 7% reduction in emissions each year to 2030. Can Mr. Carroll explain the difference, if there is any, between this and the Bill's reference to carbon neutrality by 2050? Does this mean the actual cuts in emissions will be balanced or accounted for in some way with sinks, credits for the future or the removal of gases via future technology which we do not have? Science is very dubious about the carbon capturing technology that is vaguely referred to in the Bill.