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

I regret that I was not in the Chamber to hear the earlier part of the debate. A very important meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action took place earlier. This important motion before the House is, as the Ceann Comhairle noted, about process. It is about the powers of this Parliament. In the United Kingdom, we can see how the House of Commons is taking back power from Government. This is a similar moment. The Government has been fighting the Bill in the knowledge that it does not have the ability to refuse to issue a money message to block it. We will pass the motion when we vote on it on Thursday and thereby allow the Bill to proceed to Committee Stage. That would be an historic moment for the environmental movement in the State and for this Parliament. It is important that we do not allow the Government and the various Departments involved to block the majority will of the people as represented in this House.

This is a hugely significant Bill. I thank Deputy Bríd Smith and People Before Profit for bringing it forward. One of the key actions advocated by the environmental movement to tackle the problem of climate change at source is to not put all the guilt, onus and pressure on individuals to change their behaviour. We should make it easier for people to change their behaviour and we will have to make massive investments and policy decisions to allow that to happen. We also need to recognise the science and listen to what Greta Thunberg and the IPCC are saying. We are aware that we have to leave four fifths of known fossil fuel reserves underground. This is what the Bill will do for Ireland's part of the world. Our sea area is ten times the size of our land area. This is not a small decision; it is not of minor consequence. It is huge in the context of what it would do to keep those fossil fuel reserves in the ground and in the signal it would send out to the rest of the world that Ireland can and will be good at this transition.

In answer to Deputy Healy-Rae and the others, I am of the view that the alternative future in which we will electrify our transport and the heating in our homes, along with all of the other measures we are going to take, will see Irish people thrive and will bring back a strong sense of community with a completely different economic model. We cannot do that and at the same time say we are going in the direction of still looking for every last trace of gas and every last drop of oil. We have to stop. We have to start making the switch. This would give a very important signal to the business community, to our own people and to the international community that Ireland is truly going green.

I have been sitting here with Deputy Bríd Smith through this process and it has been disgraceful the way the Bill has been blocked. The way that Standing Orders and other processes have been used, and the way the Government has blocked the Bill, has been disrespectful of the Parliament. This has come to an end here tonight and I very much welcome that. It is very important that we proceed immediately to Committee Stage and on to Report Stage in order that the Bill can be put before the Seanad during the remaining days of this Dáil and then enacted. This would be a hugely significant step. I would love to see it happen with a range of other Bills also, but we will start here tonight. This is an historic moment and I commend Deputy Bríd Smith on the way she presented the Bill and in how she stuck with it against all of the obstacles that were put in her way.

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