Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy referred to legislation. The Government has already accepted during the term of this Dáil three Private Members' Bills to improve our environment: Deputy McLoughlin's Bill to ban fracking, which has now been banned in Ireland; Deputy Pringle's legislation to prevent the State investing in fossil fuels, that has been passed and we worked with the Deputy on that, and legislation proposed by the Green Party, which we have taken on board, to ban microplastics. Those are three practical examples of Bills that the Government has adopted and accepted to make our environment better.

We have a difficulty with the legislation being put forward on fossil fuels - the keep them in the ground Bill - because we are unconvinced on four points: the evidence is that this Bill will not reduce emissions at all, in fact one person taking the bus once rather than driving would reduce emissions more than that Bill, so it is largely ineffectual.

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