John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

——in human history is the challenge of global warming. If this problem is not tackled, there will be catastrophic sea rises and huge increases in the intensity of storms, and people will not have insurance. I discovered this when I attended a conference in Berlin 11 years ago as Lord Mayor of Dublin. There is no insurance for storm damage, which is a serious problem. Species will disappear, as will countries, and there will be many more ecological refugees. We will also see the disappearance of our economy. The Minister talks about reality, but that will be the reality.

What is the Minister, Deputy Roche's, response to this? He was on the radio this morning talking about the problem of free newspapers. That is what concerns the Minister. It is time the Minister had a reality check. What planet is the Minister, Deputy Roche, on? It certainly is not planet Earth. If it were, he would be trying to save the planet. The Government has not been blessed with good environment Ministers. Former environment Minister, Deputy Cullen, and the current Minister, Deputy Roche, have managed to make the other former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, look good.

The Minister's job is to try to convey the seriousness of this problem to the electorate and, second, to embrace positive solutions. This Bill is about reality and my colleague, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has put forward many positive solutions in the area of energy, but they have been ignored by the Government. It is often said in a capitalist society that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Likewise, there is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to ecology. Decisions will have to be made. Otherwise, the consequences for this and future generations will be severe.

I remind the Minister of what was said by the Irish committee on climate change. It estimates that there will be a rise in sea levels of approximately two millimetres per year. Dr. John Sweeney, a member of the climate change committee who will address the civic forum next week, has told us climate change will mean that homes in Dublin will have to be approximately four metres, that is, 12 feet, above sea level if they are to be safe. Does the Minister know how many homes in Dublin are four metres above sea level? He should visit Ringsend, Sandymount, Ballsbridge and Donnybrook in my constituency. Some of the homes in these areas are beside the River Dodder or the River Liffey and along the sea front. Many of them are below sea level so we will see the Taoiseach standing in his wellingtons again.

Many of my constituents are extremely vulnerable. If that is true for my area, it is certainly true of Deputy Boyle's constituency in Cork and the constituency of the Minister of State. People are vulnerable. That is the reality of climate change. We have a difficult job communicating that reality. As I told our recent press conference, trying to let people know about this phenomenon is difficult because CO2 is an odourless gas. We must make this a tangible concept, and the only way to do that is to let people know that their activities and use of energy is contributing to the storms we now see, which are becoming more frequent.

I have asked the Government repeatedly for assistance to deal with the problem of climate change and to provide more money for flood protection measures, but nothing has been forthcoming. There is a symbolic wall in Ringsend but that is all. It has become a feature of the Government that it sets up committees and then ignores their advice. The committee on climate change has stated that there should be no building within 100 metres of soft shorelines and no reclamation of estuary lands and that there should be a cost-benefit analysis of hard engineering solutions.

What does that mean? The Government is proposing to proceed with building an incinerator in my constituency well within 100 metres of the shoreline on the Poolbeg peninsula.

See this speech in context