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

I was not surprised to hear the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, state this measure is unrealistic and not credible and that it amounts to posturing and gesture politics. I was expecting that but not the lack of a sense of emergency. They say that our day will come, this will happen and that we should debate it over a long period. The point is being missed here. We have been debating this issue for three decades and the planet is heating up at a rapid pace. Ireland is missing its targets. It missed by up to 7% last year. We will not meet the EU targets in 2020 or 2030. We barely invest in public transport. The Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, called gas a transition fuel. There is no evidence of that. There is no evidence that natural gas is any less damaging to the planet than is oil and yet the Minister of State seems to speak with authority on these things.

The carbon dioxide that accumulates in the atmosphere and drives climate change can come from anywhere in the world. It can come from China, Britain or Northern Ireland. The point is being missed. This is an emergency. The point is being missed by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, who suggests that we wait and that the situation will change in time. We do not have time. The planet is hurtling towards catastrophe. The point of this Bill is not to say in an unrealistic, gesture-politics way that we can survive without oil and gas immediately and that we can immediately make it happen in some magical way. If this country, this Government and this House take the brave position of making a statement to the rest of the world that we intend to leave oil and gas in the ground and that we are not issuing any more exploration licences, not only will we be sending a signal globally but we will be sending a message to the greed and the power of the fossil fuel companies to the effect that they cannot get away with what they do everywhere and all the time.

Amazing alternatives are available. When we were in Bonn, we went through the tents and looked at the technology that is being created throughout the world now to drive those alternatives forward but there is no political support for them. That is the problem. The political support to do something now is not present here and it is not present across Europe. We are failing to recognise that. We keep saying that we will be all right because we can trade off in transport and that we can pay the Third World for its emissions and give it some money to plant trees and do good things for the planet. That is not going to work. We have to make a stand and start to clean up our act. Carbon trading and offsets will not do it.

Breakthroughs are not being looked at in a serious way here. I believe that if we give ourselves a kick up the backside by signalling that the future is not about fossil fuels but rather about renewables then consecutive Governments will be forced to really invest in them.

I will conclude by citing Professor Kevin Anderson, who I mentioned earlier. He said one cannot fool nature. One can talk all one wants and pretend one is doing something to deal with climate change but the reality remains that we continue to emit more carbon dioxide by using more gas and more oil. Carbon dioxide levels continue to rise at an increasing speed and it is bringing us towards an historic catastrophe.

I thank the other parties in the House which have indicated their strong support. We hope that we will get this Bill past the next Stages. I thank all of the environmental campaigning groups, particularly the young people who passionately want the Minister to pass this Bill.

We have a very modern Taoiseach in Leo Varadkar, who likes to be identified with changing the world in similar ways to Justin Trudeau and other modern-type leaders of this world. He should make a stand and back this Bill and begin to change his own party's mind. Ireland will go down in history if it backs this measure as one of four small countries in the world which are saying to the big powers that we should save the planet now and stop taking more gas and oil out of the ground.

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