Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Further to the Green Party contribution at Leaders' Questions earlier, this is not personally against the Minister in any way. He is not responsible for the fact that our emissions went up by 5% in energy and transport back in 2015 and he is not responsible for the way in which, from my perspective, our entire public administrative system fails to see the opportunity or is stuck for whatever reason with a lack of courageous ambition to develop the sort of plan T.K. Whitaker introduced 50 years ago today. It is not about saying the Minister who is six months into office is responsible for it. He is not. At the same time, we must recognise the reality of where we are. We are one of only two European countries not to meet its targets and we are going radically in the wrong direction. There nothing on the horizon which shows me that we have the scale of ambition and understanding to grasp what is an economic opportunity for our country. I note to Deputy Boyd Barrett that it is an opportunity for business as well. While the State has to lead, we can have business involvement. This is going to have to change everything. It will require enterprise as well as citizen engagement in a national climate dialogue, but it also needs political leadership here.

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