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 Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the Minister of State for the frankness and honesty of his response on this which is refreshing. We have not heard this from anyone else to date. The Minister of State states that there are checks and balances along the way. There certainly is a mechanism where there is engagement with the Oireachtas which is already in place in the 2015 legislation which we all accept is inadequate. The Minister of State is basically regurgitating the engagement with the Oireachtas of the 2015 legislation. The approval and ratification process, however, is now being taken out of the hands of the national Parliament and put into the hands of the Government. The Minister of State said in his response that the Government should be the final approval process. I inform the Minister of State that no, it should not. It should not be the final approval process as the national Parliament should have that role. If we were to replicate what the Minister of State has just been arguing in regard to public finances, one would have the Minister for Finance in the first budget after an election cycle presenting all of the taxation measures for the next five years, the taxes that are going to be introduced and how they will apply to every individual across the country, without saying how the Minister is actually going to spend any of that money over the five years. If Dáil Éireann rejects that budget as it is presented by the Minister for Finance, then the Minister for Finance can bring in any taxation measure he or she wants within 60 days without any recourse to Parliament. That is an unbelievable power that we are giving to any Minister or Government.

The sectoral target plans are even worse and there is at least some mechanism and a veil of a type of approval process here with this legislation on the carbon budget. There are none in respect of the sectoral targets.

On the overall carbon budget, the Oireachtas has the choice. It either accepts it or leaves that to the Minister of the day to bring in whatever budget he or she so wishes. That is completely unacceptable in any democracy. I gave an analogy on the Second Stage of this legislation. The powers that we are giving here are far in excess of what should be given to any one individual or Government of the day. Ultimately, we as Deputies are the ones who are accountable to the people. Anyone who accepts this legislation as it is currently drafted is basically writing him or herself out of any formal or legal input into either the carbon budgets or the sectoral targets from here onwards. That is fundamentally wrong and I urge the Minister of State to reconsider this between now and Report Stage.

The Minister of State will agree that the vast majority of Members of the Oireachtas are in support of moving forward in a very positive way in achieving our overall climate targets, not just to 2030 but beyond that to 2050. Let us say, however, down the road that we have a Minister and a Government who are not ambitious in this.

They can put forward very inadequate carbon budgets while taking cognisance of what the CCAC says. They can listen to what the committee says but, ultimately, they can set very minimal targets. The Parliament elected by the people has no function. If it rejects that budget because it believes it is insufficient to meet our global and domestic challenges, the Minister of the day can bring in whatever budget he or she wishes, which is unacceptable. I urge the Minister of State to reconsider this amendment.

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