Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Department is trying to make a case that the Bill denies the country energy security, that it does not contribute to the reduction of emissions and that it does nothing to incentivise renewables. I strongly reject all three grounds.

First, there is nothing secure, either energy-wise or any other way, in a planet that will overheat by more than 2°C and will fail to deliver on the Paris agreement. We have witnessed that in the past few weeks in places such as Quebec and Siberia where temperatures have been the highest ever on record. People have died. In Cyprus, old people are dying because of overheating. One can argue that is not evidence of climate change but we have just heard how everybody here accepts the science and the warnings that we need to keep fossil fuel use to a minimum.

The main argument we want to make is that this planet does not recognise borders when it comes to climate change. Emissions from China, Britain, Ireland or America impact on climate change. We have to do our bit to ensure that what is required for the future is done, that is, leaving fossil fuels in the ground.

I do not accept that the Bill will fail to incentivise the renewable energy sector; I believe it will. I accept the evidence from Mr. Allen that it incentivises renewables to undermine the production and the promotion of gas.

Using gas is very much pushed on the community. It is advertised very heavily as a green form of energy, with blue and green imagery used in television advertisements, etc. Again, I accept that it is less harmful than coal and oil, but it is not a clean fossil fuel. There is leakage of methane which makes a contribution to the overall impact on climate change. The Bill sets out to say to everyone in the country, including employers, industry, the Government and beyond, that we need to do something decisive now and stop waiting to rely on future technologies to deal with the problem of global warming. We need to begin to deal with it now. As it has been on many other issues such as same sex marriage, Ireland can be a leader, instead of a laggard, as the Taoiseach said. I appeal to him, the Department and all of the parties to think long and hard about that because we are running out of time. What nature and physics are telling us cannot be denied. We will not have a second chance or a second bite at the cherry.