Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The question of climate change is simply too important for there not to be the fullest possible scrutiny and oversight of mitigation plans and of the actions to be taken to reduce CO2 emissions. I do not see why the Minister should resist these amendments, of which mine is amendment No. 50, which all make the same point that these plans need to be assessed and scrutinised by the entire Oireachtas. It is about hardwiring the question of dealing with climate change into the political system so it does not become a decision for the Government of the day which will spin its view of the situation on climate change. Instead, there will be the fullest possible scrutiny of the issue and it will be centre stage in the political system, overseen in the most transparent and accountable way by all the political forces of the Dáil and the public who will be looking in. It is necessary that the entire matter be fully interrogated on a regular basis.

This series of amendments is fully in line with the promised democratic revolution. I do not really see how the Minister can say with a straight face that he remains committed to democratic reform, Dáil reform, political reform and the high-blown rhetoric of democratic revolution and then resist this. A capital plan has just come out and announcements about dealing with the housing crisis are being made month after month but we never get a real opportunity to scrutinise the detail of these announcements. Instead, we get Government by press conference, press release, photo-op and political stunt where the Government merely appears to be doing something. We have blaring headlines suggesting something big, something good and dramatic is happening on a particular issue but we never get the opportunity to scrutinise the detail. The reason we do not get the chance to scrutinise the detail is that if we did get the chance to do so, the whole thing would unravel and we would discover that nothing was really happening. It is all generalities and any measures are simply rehashed and recycled versions of measures that have been announced previously while nothing is happening on the ground. In fact, in many cases, the situation is getting much worse on the ground, as is certainly the case with the housing crisis.

It should not be allowed happen with the housing crisis, which is a disaster, but let us not compound that sort of bad politics by doing the same on an issue as important and as vital to the survival of humanity and this planet as climate change.

I do not see why the Minister would resist these amendments and I do not see what is at stake other than a desire by the Government to continue closed and unaccountable government that operates by diktat and spin. If that is not the Government Fine Gael and the Labour Party are, and they are keen to prove they are serious about open, accountable, more democratic government, then they should agree to these amendments. They relate to the most basic reform of democracy that one could imagine. Important plans should be subject to such scrutiny and it would send a clear message that the Government is serious about the issue of climate change and so serious that it intends to hard-wire regular scrutiny of the matter into the political system in order that it cannot be spun, ignored or manipulated by this or that Government now or in the future.

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