Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

The previous speakers have been Opposition Deputies. If Deputy Gogarty speaks on the motion, at least that will have been a response to the point I made, but we all need to work together on this issue. The work we do is important and valuable and we must work together to do our best to make what the Oireachtas does look good from the public point of view. It is important that the Government does its bit in that regard.

The proposed Bill included in the report is an all-party one, agreed by the Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security. I commend the work of Deputy McManus, the people who helped to draft the Bill, including Claire Power and all members of the committee on their initiative in preparing it. We talk of having a better functioning Oireachtas but we need to ensure it is not only the Government that takes the initiative in introducing a Bill and that Bills could be introduced by the Opposition, whether on a an all-party basis or not, and supported in moving forward through the system. A great deal of work was put into the preparation of this Bill and it was done on an all-party basis rather than Government driven. It was a great initiative. It would be welcome if the Government could adopt it, but if it does not do so and it decides to introduce its own Bill, I hope it will work with the Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security to reach as good a compromise as possible on the proposed legislation and that it will accept amendments tabled by Opposition Deputies and Government backbenchers.

Our level of emissions has fallen because of the recession. We do not know for how many more years that will be the trend but, hopefully, it will not continue for too long. The issues, which the proposed legislation attempts to address, will emerge again in the future and once our economy picks up we will face the same type of challenge we faced before our economy started to take a downward turn. This legislation is as important now as it was three years ago. It is not the case that because the climate change debate is not as high on the agenda that it is not important to pass the proposed legislation. The reasons for its introduction have been given, namely, that it would provide certainty, it would put addressing climate change on the agenda and make it clear that it is a priority of the Oireachtas, the Government and the Taoiseach. A mechanism is included in the Bill to make the Taoiseach responsible, the objective of which is to ensure that addressing climate change is a cross-departmental, cross-sector challenge. There is a danger of climate change becoming marginalised. It is important, therefore, it is addressed on that basis. All Departments have a influence in how we deal with climate change.

When the proposed Bill, or a similar one is passed, another issue to be considered, which I would bring to the attention of climate change lobbyists, is that much of the language around climate change is, by nature, technical and remote, including all the detail relating to targets, emissions, trading schemes, carbon offsets and carbon credits. It is remote from the way people live their daily lives in their communities. This debate is slightly offputting, as are many political debates. All the talk of bond markets is a big turnoff. People wonder what all this language means when they hear it discussed on radio and television. People need to know what the impact of climate change will mean for them in terms of flooding and other developments. Language is an issue in this debate.

We have all the targets, which would be set out in the proposed Bill, together with all the procedures, processes and offices that have been set up, but if we want to solve the problems posed by climate change, it comes down to the small practical steps that can be taken in local communities by local government, Dublin Bus, CIE or whoever. It translates down to the small practical things people can do. Such measures would energise people about this issue, rather than talk of targets. Despite all the lobbying and petitions, this debate has not filtered out in the public domain, which is largely due to the way this issue is discussed, which makes it a remote from people.

Local government has an extremely important role to play in tackling the issue of climate change. It could intervene in terms of projects. It is involved in planning and it can play a role in local enterprise. When legislation is introduced, we must not forget that this issue is about leadership being shown by the Oireachtas and the Government. The report refers to a bottom-up approach. This is the most important approach because it relates to the practical things that people can do to address the issue of climate change. It is not only about reducing emissions because there is a recession or signing a document on the dotted line but about putting in place measures such as a local wind farm, a project involving a local school to encourage parents to walk with their children to school to reduce the use of cars, or a rural public transport system. Many different initiatives could be taken.

The idea of green jobs is important, as is the way in which we can combine addressing climate change with economic growth to ensure we have cleaner growth for the future. How can we make sure our economic growth is not out of kilter with our ambitions for the environment and addressing climate change? The phrase "green jobs" has been put forward but people do not really spell out what such jobs would involve or they may not know what they will involve in practice. It is an issue to which we need to give much more thought. Green jobs are talked about as if they relate only to the construction and waste management sectors but we need to focus on the scientific area as in the invention of products, say, to help conserve energy and to help our economic growth and the development of start up enterprises around such projects. We need to give more consideration to the areas of research and development we need to promote. Development in this area is not only about wind energy. It is important to involve all stakeholders in this process and that includes local communities, voluntary groups and so on.

As I have said previously, substantial research has found that societies with more income equality do better in their performance in terms of the environment, among many other areas. Measures taken to better organise society to address climate change should also have as their objective not only to avoid exacerbating inequality of income but to secure greater equality of income. Such an approach would create a better society.

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