Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I also think this is one of the most important conversations on the Bill we will have. The reality is that climate issues are not just about the environment. They are part of a much broader issue and we cannot separate them out. If we start dealing with environmental or climate issues separately to the economy, inequality and people's living standards we will not achieve what we need to achieve with the Bill. We cannot leave people behind when we deal with the climate crisis.

We are at a crossroads. We have an opportunity to use the Bill to meet our climate objectives and to create an environment we can all enjoy and live in. If we do not do it right, there is a risk we will create a very divided Ireland where a portion of our communities are left behind. If people are struggling to put a roof over their heads and food on their tables, climate issues and environmental issues will be the last thing on their minds and that is the reality. Achieving the climate targets and the environment we need to move towards comes down to a cultural shift and a system shift. We cannot do it unless we bring everyone along with us. It is very important to ensure just transition is a component of the Bill.

The amendment I have tabled defines just transition and goes into what the principles are. We need to have a conversation about what the just transition principles are. Even during pre-legislative scrutiny, the officials stated that climate justice covers it. It actually does not because it is a different concept. It is a very broad concept but climate justice is more of an international global issue whereas just transition relates to Ireland and our workers and communities. The first thing we need to do is to define it.

The Minister said we will not be able to deal with social inequalities in the Bill but we will have to address them because they are all part of the same thing. We are all part of the same ecosystem. We will not be able to deal with one issue without dealing with the other. It is incredibly important that we incorporate this into the Bill. This is an opportunity. We can have it in the Bill and we can define it and have discussions on it. We can look to countries such as Scotland which have done a very good job on this. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Other countries have done a lot of this work. We could learn from what they have done. Many of the amendments are pulling from international expertise. We can look at this as an opportunity to right some of the wrongs and rebalance our communities and how we are living. We have to incorporate it in the Bill. It needs to be there as a guiding point of principle to give this direction. Otherwise it will be forgotten.

I have had this conversation with the Minister previously when he introduced the waste policy. People with disabilities had very limited consultation. No one represented people in poverty when the policy was developed. This needs a very holistic approach. If we do not embed just transition in the framework of the Bill, we will not be able to take an holistic approach. It is absolutely critical that we get this right and it has to go in at this point. Earlier, the Minister mentioned that just transition is defined in the Bill but it is not. It was one of the key recommendations of the committee. We heard from many experts and the majority of them said we need to take the principles of just transition into account.

I tabled an amendment that was ruled out of order on the establishment of a just transition commission. This should be looked at because the difficulty with just transition is that if we are not proactive on it, and if we put in place the framework for the climate targets and start putting restrictions on emissions but we have not considered just transition policies in parallel with this, we will have a very reactive transition and it will not be good. We need to build just transition principles into the Bill now to make sure the processes happen at the same time. I know the programme for Government includes a just transition commissioner.

However, there have been no details of how that will be implemented and no focus on it. We will only get that focus if we incorporate the relevant provision into the Bill.