Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak in support of the amendment. There is a consistency through the Sinn Féin amendments. There is a very clear theme not just in our own amendments, but in the various amendments that have been submitted by the full range of opposition parties and groups, in fairness to everybody who went to the bother of scrutinising the Bill and looking at where they felt there was room for improvement in relation to it. Key to those themes are the level of accountability, the democratic nature of the way decisions are made, who has a voice at the table and whose voice is heard and not heard. The amendments also seek to ensure and to make explicit in the Bill the values that will be upheld as we embark upon this journey towards net zero, including fairness in respect of burden sharing and equality.

I have argued - this amendment also speaks to the point - that there is an ethical, moral and environmental rationale for making such things explicit. I also believe there is a political rationale, because it speaks to the very real concerns communities right across the country have, based on experience to date and many of the arguments that have been made in the past number of days and will be made in the next few hours in relation to the prospect of what we are setting ourselves up for here and the real risk that by the nature of the potential for emission reductions in certain sectors compared to others, there will be unfair burden sharing.

I echo Deputy Carthy's point. I put it to the Minister of State that given everything he has heard on this amendment and throughout the meeting today, along with the Minister, when he was present, it is clear this Bill is not the finished article. It needs to come back improved on Report Stage.