Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 June 2021

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed)

Photo of Ossian SmythOssian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I accept that these amendments are made in good faith but I am going to argue against them.

At the moment the Oireachtas is getting its chance to decide if it wants to carry out these ambitious emissions reductions over the coming decade. It is setting in place a process by which we can achieve that. There are checks and balances along the way as we decide how it is done. We have our CCAC and we have Oireachtas committees where Ministers can be brought in for cross-examination on their actions. The question raised by these amendments is whether the Houses of the Oireachtas should be allowed to stop the carbon budgets from going through. The danger, if we allow this to happen, is that we will be entering into a recurring cycle of carbon budgets. In other words, if a compromise and collective agreement can be reached on a budget by the Houses that is fine, but if these budgets keep being rejected then there is no reason that any carbon budget can then be put through and we are left in a situation where we have nothing to work with. We have agreed what the emission reduction is going to be. When the carbon budget is presented to the House, it has the opportunity to reject it and to ask for it to be reconsidered. We cannot allow that to be an infinite power.

There is an idea underlying these amendments that this is undemocratic and this is simply untrue. The process provides an opportunity for the Houses to provide input into the carbon budget in the first two-month period on the publication of the CCAC budget but also to vote on the budget as presented. There is, therefore, plenty of time for debate. I strongly disagree with the proposal and the Government should be the final approval authority but should then be held accountable by the Oireachtas for its approved budgets. If we were to delegate approval to the House as a whole that would undercut the role of the Executive to the detriment of accountability. Who is the Oireachtas going to cross-examine and hold accountable if it has made the decisions itself? I am calling therefore for the amendment to be withdrawn.

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