Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for giving their time to come here on a Friday. Some of them had to get up at 4 a.m. We appreciate their statements. There are many serious points to be made and the committee has a lot to reflect on.

Rather than go through each individual contribution and respond to some of the points raised, I will talk about some of the actions I am taking as the climate justice spokesperson for Sinn Féin. Those actions touch on the issues our guests have talked about, particularly around the circular economy. I worked on the single-use plastics directive when I was an MEP and fully support the stance that we need to reduce single-use plastics. In fact, we need to try to eradicate them in as far as that is possible. One of the things that many people do not know, and this again shows the importance of education, is the link between plastics and the fossil fuel industry. I do not think people make that connection at all. The single-use plastic industry is a way for the fossil fuel industry to continue to argue for its existence. I welcome the focus on that issue.

The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, is here. He was responsible for the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act. We engaged on that legislation, which covers a wide range of issues. As a country, we are bad at recovery and that needs to change. That was a useful engagement.

Sinn Féin has today launched the Amazon Bill, which proposes a ban on the dumping of unused non-food products. We will be introducing that Bill to the Seanad in the coming weeks. This week, Amazon opened its new warehouse. I have issues with Amazon and its business approach in general. All the sellers pay to store their products on the shelves of Amazon warehouses and if their products do not sell quickly enough, it becomes more costly to keep them on the shelves and they get dumped. Completely unused smart televisions, clothing, books, school furniture, laptops, drones, Dyson hairdryers, you name it, are dumped. That has happened in Germany, France and Britain. We now have a fulfilment centre in Ireland. That is why we feel the need to introduce similar legislation to that adopted in France to ban that practice.

It is not just Amazon. Others have mentioned fast fashion, which is a big issue and a part of the consumerist and capitalist approach that means we buy more, throw it away and all of that stuff. It is also a problem with designer products. There is always a focus on Primark and the low-cost end but designer products also participate in that fast fashion. Brand-new designer products are being dumped. Such companies will not sell those products cheaper because it would reduce the profile of the brand. We must be careful not to stigmatise the low-cost end because the designer brands are just as bad.

One of our speakers talked about Africa and climate justice. We have been doing work on the Energy Charter Treaty. As the Minister of State is here, I will again echo my call for Ireland to leave the Energy Charter Treaty which allows fossil fuel companies to sue countries involved in the treaty. The other concerning part of the treaty, and another reason I think it is important that the EU leaves, which would effectively kill the treaty, is that it is trying to expand into Africa. We are talking about loss and damage. We cannot allow the expansion of the treaty to countries that are fossil fuel rich and tie them on the hook to allow fossil fuel companies to sue them if they try to phase out their fossil fuel interests. There is a climate justice element involved. We need to leave that treaty.

There has been mention of the importance of listening to youth voices. I was surprised that no one mentioned the reduction of the voting age to 16, which is critical and must change. My colleague, Senator Warfield, has introduced a Bill to propose that reduction and there are parties here who support it. Politicians listen to voters. That is the reality. We need young people to be active in the democratic process.

My office has also been doing a lot of work around the use of light-emitting diode, LED, billboards in advertising. It goes back to the idea of consumerism and pushing. We are seeing a proliferation of billboards, particularly in our urban centres. Advertisers are now changing to LED billboards, which have an energy use. We are trying to reduce our energy demand to avoid blackouts, yet we are giving planning permission for LED billboards to go up all around the country.

I will allow my colleague, Deputy Cronin, to talk about some of the issues around public transport, retrofitting and so on. I appreciate our guests coming here today. I ask them to keep the pressure on politicians until they get the vote. Some of them have the vote already because they are over 18. I ask them to keep the pressure on us because that is the only way they will get change.