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

When one looks at the flooding engulfing huge parts of the country, one realises - given that this is happening so frequently - how serious this problem is and how much it is costing us. It is not a problem that will arise in the distant future; it is happening now. Our afforestation targets are pathetic. They are less than half of what they should be at 6,000 hectares per year when to achieve the forest cover we need, they should be twice that.

Will the Minister of State respond on the issue of banning fracking? There should be absolutely no consideration of fracking and bringing up gas and oil for health and environmental reasons when we have to meet these targets and the Government is pleading that it cannot meet them. It resisted binding targets in the climate change legislation.

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