Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to see this Bill reach fruition today. I thought it would right from the very outset because of the commitment of Deputy Pringle. He is owed a great debt of gratitude for the way he introduced this Bill and worked so hard on Committee Stage and with the Department to try to reach a conclusion that works. That is most important and my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, has already spoken on that aspect of the Bill. I want to be associated as well with the positive remarks regarding Ms Cliona Sharkey and Ms Selina Donnelly. They are two of the best advocates acting on behalf the environment in their work with this House. They are here regularly, always have a good story to tell and back up their assertions with facts and figures.

That makes our work much easier in attempting to convince colleagues, as it might be on occasion, and ensuring we are doing the right thing. Trócaire stands out but there are numerous other organisations represented here today as well that do fantastic work. I am singling out Trócaire because of the work it does and the attention it pays to the elected Members. We regularly get critical comments from others in what is often a very direct way. Trócaire does it with a little bit more of the carrot than the stick. It is proven that its work is well worth it. At the end of the day, as my colleague Deputy Michael McGrath has also said, this Bill is relatively modest in what it sets out to do but seismic in respect of the shift taking place in this House.

It has succeeded, as Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan said earlier, in bringing together people from different and disparate political backgrounds around a particular agenda and showing, notwithstanding our various different backgrounds, ideas, views and visions, that we can come together on the big issues and find an appropriate solution. This just a start. I also compliment Deputy Bríd Smith who also has a Bill on Committee Stage regarding leaving fossil fuels in the ground. Fianna Fáil has supported, and will continue to support, that Bill. It will need more refinement and work but that is what the committee process is all about.

It is moving the agenda towards ensuring that at long last, we seek to address the climate change we all accept is happening. There are alternatives and it does not have to be a big negative on our economy. The green agenda and the green economy present an opportunity to provide employment. We must recognise there is a resource already blowing off the west and east coasts and it is about harnessing that resource and generating clean energy from it. We have much more to do to address the targets we are, unfortunately, going to miss for 2020 and, I suspect, for 2030 unless we make significant changes to the way we do our business. That is now a feature of the work of the Joint Committee on Climate Action and I hope that over the next number of months we will be able to bring forward policy decisions to inform the Government about achieving the targets we have set out.

I thank all those involved in making this a success. I hope that it is just the beginning of a detailed commitment from those of us who are elected and have the burden of responsibility to protect the environment. I hope we will work assiduously over the coming months and years to bring forward legislation to move us away from our dependence on fossil fuels, to look at harnessing clean energy and to reconfigure the way we live our lives to provide respect for the environment in order that we hand on to future generations that which was provided to us in such a careful way.

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