Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Great. I will go all day at this. Let me go over it again. The Minister should be concerned about the budget, but he does not seem to be. He seems to be happy enough that he has €500,000 for a national dialogue.

There were 15,000 young people on the streets protesting during the Paris deal on climate change. They have had the dialogue and they know what they are talking about. They are extraordinarily concerned about the future of the planet. The €24 million on energy efficiency and renewables will go nowhere towards having an impact. There is €2 million for better homes energy, €4 million for better energy communities and €8 million for warmth and well-being schemes. This just is not sufficient to take this seriously. Where does the Minister think he can get additional resources? Has he thought of looking at the fact our pension reserves give a chunk of money to oil companies and to researching companies which extract gas and oil instead of trying to reduce such activities?

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