Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is a climate change policy that has failed and the Minister of State knows that. It is even acknowledged in the Government amendment. It is a policy that has failed. We are pathetically short of our targets and the Government is not willing to take the type of radical action that is necessary. The Government says it will not affect emissions. That is a nonsense. This is a global problem. It is not just about Ireland's little emissions, it is about stopping the poisoning of the global environment. For this to happen, 80% of the known reserves, never mind the unknown reserves that the Government wants to find, extract and hand over for profit to oil companies, have to be left in the ground. That is the scientific fact. This is what this Bill seeks to do. It is the absolute precondition to even starting to address the problem and then moving on to all the other things we need such as investment in public transport, afforestation, retrofit and developing renewable energy sources that do not wreck our environment. The Government shows no willingness or no interest in doing that. It has been dancing to the tune of the oil companies and big agribusiness but it will not succeed because the young people are on the march, the people are on the march, and that movement of people power to save our future will prevail in the end, of that I am absolutely certain.

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