Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, and I compliment him on his appointment, but the speech he has given contains five pages of the same old stuff and one page on policy. We do not need to be convinced anymore. The scientific evidence is overwhelming now about global warming. There is consensus in this House about the importance of the issue. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security is working very well across party lines on the basis of consensus. We do not need the material to be regurgitated anymore. We need to see implementation of policy, including practical measures to change the way we live, work, consume energy and manage our lives in an appropriate way to ensure that we save the planet. However, we are not getting that. Even this debate is derisory in reflecting how the Government deals with climate change and I get the impression it does very little apart from pay lip service. We have benign neglect from Fianna Fáil and good intentions from the Green Party, which is not enough to meet the challenge.

At EU level we will likely be subject to the requirement of a 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. This is a good target and one to which we ought aspire. We are a developed country and we live in a part of the world that could be described as rich, despite the current economic recession. We have a duty of care to the planet. We need more than the presence of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the House to discuss what needs to be done; we need the Taoiseach. If policy is not led from the very top, change will not happen and we will not have a chance in hell of meeting either our international obligations or our duty of care to the planet. I welcome the invitation that will go from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security to the Taoiseach to address it.

Addressing climate change requires the type of leadership of which this country is capable. We have seen such leadership in the past, whether it was in achieving our independence, developing our economy in the 1950s and 1960s, or creating peace in Northern Ireland. We have done magnificent work in this country and we need the sense of urgency, understanding and leadership applied to those challenges now to address what is not just an issue for us, but a global issue. We must address these challenges in a way which meets targets set, changes behaviour and deals with the significant issues, but is also fair. This is the essence of sustainability. Unless the changes are brought about in a fair way, there will be alienation, especially from those who suffer most from the changes required. We need a fuel poverty strategy.

We need to address the issue of a bio-fuels policy. Why has the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, postponed the publication of the bio-fuels policy until the autumn and not dealt with the matter now? We are discussing global starvation, yet the Minister does not have a policy. The matter is put on the never never, which is rather typical of the man. There is an urgency, importance and a centrality to this issue that cannot be ignored. Today's statements on climate change in no way meet the need for a proper parliamentary debate or a proper approach from Government and I intend to pursue the matter until we get these.

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