Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on something the Taoiseach mentioned. He said he wanted climate action that does not hurt jobs, make people poorer or make things more severe for people. Bord na Móna workers are facing redundancy and replacement into other jobs. In the words of their union official, they are being treated abysmally because we are making a bags of the first challenge of just transition for both the workers and the community.

On the issue of our natural gas, three days after this House declared a climate emergency the Government issued a licence to Exxon Mobil and the Chinese state oil company - those nasty communist Chinese - to drill for oil 200 miles off the Kerry coast. If they find it, more than likely it will not come back here because it would not be economically efficient or suitable to do so. It would not be commercially viable. Therefore it is not our gas. It is gas this State is selling off for a pittance to global corporations, which the Taoiseach refuses to challenge. He refuses to challenge them because he is being lobbied by them consistently. These companies are in the oil, plastics and energy industries. Until the Taoiseach takes this seriously he has no credibility. If he does not challenge the corporations, nobody will believe him when it comes to climate action.

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