Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Teachta Stanley for sharing his time with me. I have only a few minutes to speak about the climate action plan. Deputy Stanley has correctly called the plan out as a greenwash. It is very clear that the plan lacks ambition and will not in any way address the substantive issues of pollution, over-consumption and corporate responsibility. It completely lacks ambition when it comes to the role of the State. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the lack of targets or even any reference to the role that the biggest employer in the State can play in reducing carbon emissions, namely, our health service. There is one reference to hospitals in the report and it does not make any reference to the HSE. The health service employs over 100,000 people across the State, who work in a variety of buildings and locations. Surely goals and ambitious targets should have been included on how we would reduce the carbon emissions from our hospitals, or how the health service could work with vendors and suppliers to ensure that all products purchased for the health service, from medical supplies to printer paper, are as environmentally friendly as possible. The report makes no mention of how the HSE emergency service fleet can make the transition to hybrid or electric vehicles. This is really disappointing. The top 50 energy users in the public sector account for 77% of public sector energy consumption. Nearly half of the reported energy consumption in the public sector was accounted for by the top ten consumers, of which the HSE is one. The Minister and his Government have set the bar so low for themselves on climate action that they are in danger of tripping over it. Of course, as we know, they will then have recourse to a claim.

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