Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. As I stand here I cannot see the people at the back of the Chamber. When I was 16 I won a debating medal about the hole in the ozone layer and I do not know if our guests would remember that issue as it was before their time. It was an interesting one to think about today as I listen to other 16-year-olds.

That campaign was won in two ways. It was won by people like me and thousands of others all around the world saying that we did not want by-products that have the chlorofluorocarbon, CFC, chemical that creates a hole in the ozone layer. This amounted then to very significant consumer power and demand.

From the top down then there were the governments and that there was an intergovernmental meeting in Alaska in 2002, if I remember correctly. Basically, there was a global ban on CFC gases in all of the aerosols we used to use. As a result, by 2030, it is predicted that the hole in the ozone layer will have completely sealed over.

That is the first thing we should look at, namely that the Earth is a living organism. I do not believe it is too late. We have a huge part to play; we have to have hope but there is no point in having hope without action. As somebody who despaired in my early 20s, when I became a parent, about what kind of world I was bringing my child into, I never despair now. I always just focus on hope and action because I feel that we have all of the solutions we need. We just need to implement them.

A great Zen Buddhist monk once said we should just pick and do one thing, not worry about everything but to focus on one aspect. In my earlier years, I focused on waste reduction and recycling and I got a bottle refill station located my local village. I was then focused on the anti-war movement. I was moving on things and then realised that there is also a bigger picture. I went off then to Sellafield and organised a protest to shut down the nuclear power plant because I still have some issues around nuclear waste and I am unsure if that issue has been completely resolved yet. I then got into Steiner education as an alternative for my son to have a new choice and then I realised that there were policies here that need to be changed. That is basically why I got into politics.

I had worked with an NGO for 12 years and, speaking about morals, ethics and job choices, I was a well-paid maths and physics teacher and I gave up that job to take a very significant deduction in my salary to work with Green Schools and with teenagers for the past 12 years, up to two years ago.

I have to say that our guests were great today but this is exactly what I would have expected from them because this is what I get from young people all of the time. When one goes to secondary schools and one sees Green Schools committees where the teacher has empowered the pupils to run the programme as opposed to telling them what to do, it is a game changer. They then effect the change in their school. I have seen schools do a complete U-turn around their traffic, waste, energy and water use and this is because it has been led by young people and they were listened to. That is a very hopeful thing and there is a very significant missing piece there with student councils and Green Schools coming together, to work and realise the power they have and the ripple effect of what they can change.

When I used to do whole-school assembly, even if it was 900 children, I wanted the staff and the parents to be there because it is they that need the education, in some ways. Green Schools and many other programmes mentioned by our guests have done great work on educating children and teenagers. Our young people know everything about this and it is the adults in the room we really need to educate.

Senator O’Loughlin mentioned the Rediscovery Centre. They are fixing bikes, furniture, clothes and recycling paint there. We need to see that sort of thing replicated all around the country.

I do bike fixing workshops with teenage girls who studied honours physics but do not have a clue how to use a spanner. That makes me wonder what is being done in education and what kind of abstract learning are we providing to children when they cannot use a spanner yet get a H1 in honours physics. There is a mismatch and we should move towards the more practical end of education. We could bring in a home economics module on how to repair things for every student even if it is only for the first couple of years in secondary education. I say that because once people learn skills they have them for life. For example, once one learns how to ride a bike then one never forgets how to cycle. There is a mismatch in terms of abstract learning. I presume that all members will agree with me on that because we all experienced the old way of doing the leaving certificate examination, which was basic points. It was a case of do not even pick the subjects you like just do the stuff that might need if you go to college. As an academic myself I missed out on the creative side of things. I was told that I had to study physics and chemistry but I wanted to study art and music, which were worth the same points and were equally valuable. As Senator O'Loughlin said, it is amazing what can be achieved when one follows one's passions.

I believe that it is important that we listen to young people more. Today's meeting is a very good event and should be the start of something much bigger. I have arranged to meet representatives of Foróige and Comhairle na nÓg in County Clare because we constantly need reminding. I am in politics since I was 16 years of age but I forget things. I get too caught up in the policy and politics. We need people like our guests here to constantly remind us and bring it back to grassroots action.

For the first time ever we have a Minister of State responsible for the circular economy. To explain, the circular economy is a notion where one stops dumping and sending stuff to landfill and bring it back into use. He will reward people who bring their own cup in terms of every coffee shop all around the country. I had a campaign in my own county but not everything can be a campaign and, therefore, national policies are needed, and I do see some good things happening.

On the rural transport fund, I live 5 km from anywhere and I have tried to cycle my electric bike to get to a train, which works sometimes. I am working hard on getting rural bus stops and getting bikes on buses because that is a missing link. Half of the rural population lives between 2 km and 5 km from their local bus stop, if there is one. Many people do not know about the brilliant Local Link transport service that tries to fill the gaps. Where the public Bus Éireann buses do not go, we try go fill those gaps with a Local Link service. Many Local Link services exist but people do not know about them. Therefore, I urge people who are in rural Ireland to check if there is a Local Link service available, and if one is not available then contact me, which is when I will see if we can get one. People must take action. There are lots of good Ministers and politicians but we cannot think of everything all the time so we need people like our guests to remind us and give us their good ideas.