Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

David Attenborough's words at COP24 earlier this week echoed around the world when he stated that the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. Regrettably the Government is full of announcements and plans and we have seen very little real action. Senior Ministers cannot even be bothered to turn up for these statements. It shows their complete lack of interest in the most urgent challenge facing humanity. Sometimes I feel my eight year old daughter has more interest in and shows more climate change action than some of the Ministers in the Government. It is the children who are born now who will be affected. We are not talking about our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is children who are born now who will suffer.

The Government's national mitigation plan has 41 actions due for 2018, yet 20 of them are reported in the annual transition statement as not having been completed. The Government's national development plan, the vaunted Project Ireland 2040, was not even climate proofed. All the while, the Government's progress in decreasing our emissions towards the targets we have committed to has been glacially slow. It has been dragged kicking and screaming into even the tiniest of climate action measures. The Government's rhetoric keeps getting stronger and louder, but its actions continue to fail, as exemplified by the determination to build a third runway at Dublin Airport, build even more motorways across the country and extract more oil and gas from our seas.

The Environmental Protection Agency's emissions statistics released yesterday show that while our overall greenhouse gas emissions decreased marginally from 2016 to 2017, they are not falling fast enough. This change, which is less than 1%, can be primarily attributed to the reduced use of Moneypoint power station and a warm winter in 2017, rather than any new policy measures from Government. The bottom line is that we are way off target.

It is not all doom and gloom. There is a path and there are actions that can be taken if there is the political will and courage to take them. We need political courage from everyone in this House to call for and agree on a path for our country. There is no room for populist politics in the real climate action that is needed. The Government needs to make a seismic shift from concentration on road infrastructure to focusing on spending on public transport and walking and cycling infrastructure. It needs to invest in real alternatives to cars in cities and rural areas. The Government needs to focus on a sustainable model of land use based on diversification, food security, carbon efficiency and the protection of biodiversity, rather than focusing solely on agriculture that seeks to meet demand for its own sake. We must protect small farmers, young farmers and family farmers. This is essential not only for the environment but also to provide a fairer living for farmers, instead of maintaining astatus quothat is catered to and serves only the big meat processors and retailers at the cost of the small farmer.

The Government needs to provide real opportunities for people who want to be green and to save energy. It is the Minister's job to make it easy for us to be green. He needs to fast-track Sinn Féin's Microgeneration Support Scheme Bill in order that those who want to invest in solar panels can be paid back for their investment while supplying the grid with clean energy. The Government needs to stop blocking my party's Waste Reduction Bill.

I strongly believe the people of Ireland want to make a real change. The Citizens' Assembly findings showed just how willing and eager Irish people are to turn this into a country that leads on climate action instead of one that is left behind. Despite the Citizens' Assembly and the community organisations and businesses throughout the country that are focused on building a better, cleaner, greener future, it is sadly becoming ever more difficult for even the most ardent optimists among us to believe that this Government has any intention of sincerely tackling climate change.

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