James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome that the climate emergency has been immediately put back on the agenda of this House in the first week of resumption of the Dáil. It is only right that we have the opportunity to address the need for urgent actions, given the range of important climate events that are taking place in the coming weeks and disturbing news announcements that occurred over the recess. In August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, released a new special report, hot on the heels of the previous year's report, which shows the devastating effect of the climate emergency on land and food systems. Also last month, the National Parks and Wildlife Service highlighted that 85% of Irish habitats are in an "unfavourable" condition. The situation is deteriorating. We also need to be clear that developing countries are suffering the worst impacts. Compounding decades and centuries of economic injustice, we are now layering climate injustice on top of the global south. Ireland must finally take collective responsibility for its polluting emissions.

Thanks to the Citizens' Assembly and the work of the Joint Committee on Climate Action, the Government has at least started to take the issue seriously with its new climate plan. The reality, however, is that at this late stage, slow, incremental progress is not enough. This is an emergency. It is particularly disturbing that Fine Gael is failing to live up to the deadlines set out in the recommendations of the report of the Oireachtas committee, which appear to have been dismissed and do not even feature in the Government's climate plan, despite Fine Gael expressly committing to them in the committee in March.

On the plus side, outside this Chamber, the mandate for greater climate ambition is clearer than ever. Last week, we learned from a new Eurobarometer poll that 95% of Irish people consider climate change to be a serious issue, with similar levels of support for greater action on renewables and energy efficiency and other climate related objectives. Another sign of hope is tomorrow's schools strike for climate, which also links with events in New York and elsewhere over the coming week. Schoolchildren in my constituency will be out and I will join them in Maynooth, Celbridge, Naas and elsewhere. My daughter was on the strikes outside her school. Across the country and the world, these strikes will only gather in momentum with each passing week. I salute all of those involved at the picket lines, as it were.

How is the Government going respond right now? I am not referring to reviews or potential measures proposed in a few years' time but the here and now. My fear is that, as happened in March when attention was focused on the previous wave of school strikes, the Government may patronise young people. It may congratulate them on their engagement, tell them the Government will listen and talk up how they can respond by turning off lights, buying paper straws.

There will also be much focus on the youth assembly that will take place in the Dáil in November. This is a significant and welcome move. The youth assembly will focus public attention and young people will be able to present their ideas to officials. I sincerely hope they get a good hearing. It will be an important day for the Dáil and the young people involved. We cannot allows this to be the only concrete measure taken in these Houses in the coming months. Members are well aware that Ireland's emissions are continuing to rise and our 2030 targets are at risk and will not be reduced by town hall promotional events.

Almost a year ago to the day, I raised with the Taoiseach a particular concern about provisioning for potential fines for missing our climate emissions targets again. The Taoiseach glibly dismissed my concern by telling me we would not make provision in 2019 but would do so in the following budgetary year. This is symptomatic of the Government's attitude, or at least it has been in the recent past. It is not good enough.

I am aware that the Government will make pledges at the UN Climate Action Summit next week to support youth and public participation. Let us be honest, however; the problem has not been a lack of participation by young people or a lack of communication. The problem has been that the Government knowingly neglected Ireland's climate responsibilities for the best part of the past decade. I watched with amusement and enjoyment Greta Thunberg's testimony at the hearings in the US yesterday, including her deft dismissal of some whataboutery. One of the Senators hearing the evidence in Congress threw out the usual canards and "What ifs?" when he referred to China and everybody else causing pollution. I watched as Greta, with great dexterity, batted these aside by arguing that the US should get its own house in order first and worry about everybody else later. The others, she said, could take care of themselves and the US could show example. I fully agree with that view. It is back to the old expression of looking after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. Somebody else's inaction is no excuse for someone else not to act. We have to mind our own house and we can do that. We in this Chamber have a responsibility to do all we can to make that happen. One of the most important points Greta Thunberg made was the need for science to be heard. Will the Minister respond to the science and will the Government make any substantive commitments at the climate action summit next week to reduce emissions? The current approach of announcements, reviews and business as usual is not enough. It is not a response to the climate, biodiversity and global warming crises.

The UN summit is also an opportunity for the Government to chart a new course and respond substantively to young people's calls for real action to tackle this emergency. The Government should commit to supporting the European Commission's proposal that the EU increase its 2030 targets to an emissions reduction of at least 55%. While it is welcome that the Government has supported an EU commitment to climate neutrality by 2050, the Government must commit to enacting the necessary legislation to introduce this target at national level, with attendant accountability checks. I urge that this be done before the next election. Let us get it done now. Why wait?

On air quality, when it comes to measures that would reduce emissions and improve public health, particularly for younger generations, we need look no further than the area of air pollution, which results in more than 1,000 deaths in Ireland each year.

The Government has similarly put legal risks ahead of young people's health and failed to introduce a nationwide ban on smoky coal. We still do not have a clear air strategy and the number of asthma cases continues to increase. I ask the Minister to clarify what steps he is taking this month, inclusive of his stated work with the Attorney General, to ban smoky coal and put this strategy in place in order that we will begin to see improvements in air quality this year.

I mentioned biodiversity. A Fianna Fáil motion which enjoyed cross-party support and was agreed earlier this summer saw this House declare a climate and biodiversity emergency. I do not wish to wade into the beef crisis and farming issues except to say that the proliferation of well spaces and increased biodiversity must be one of the solutions to this issue. In this regard, I suggest that it may be worth exploring a REP scheme similar to that which existed in the past, whereby farmers were encouraged and financially incentivised to take environmentally sustainable initiatives on the land with support and advice from the relevant agencies.

On agriculture and the Mercosur deal, Government, inclusive of State bodies, must be a leader on climate change and must seek to empower and assist businesses and individuals. What we have seen thus far is a Government that follows. In July, Fianna Fáil, together with other parties and organisations, called on the Government to rethink its approach to Mercosur in light of the disastrous affects of deforestation, the climate change affects of the transportation of commodities from pastures and grazing lands in South America across the globe into Europe, not only in terms of the associated air miles but the rule that we should only consume food that comes from within five miles of our own plates, and the devastating affects on the rainforest, which have doubled down since the fires in the Amazon rainforest. The Government dismissed this advice but when European leaders and others raised similar issues, the Taoiseach finally listened and agreed to consider them in the context of the Mercosur deal.

On the retrofitting fiasco, I am sure every Member of this House received representations in relation to this scheme under which homeowners were encouraged to apply for a grant to retrofit their houses. When a backlog of applications built up, the scheme fell apart and funding was withdrawn. Thankfully, it has been restored. However, the fiasco undermined confidence in the Government's approach to this scheme and many other issues. We have also witnessed a fiasco in regard to the school transport scheme and the increased number of children seeking eligibility under the scheme, to which the response of Government and the Department has been to pare back the scheme using an accountant's rule to reduce the number of children travelling on school buses. In the middle of a climate emergency, we should be broadening the scheme and providing more places so that parents will be encouraged to avail of it rather than drive their children to school. The Government should not be using an accountant's rule to pare back the scheme. That makes no sense.

In regard to public transport, representing the commuter constituency of Kildare North, I have seen first-hand the Government's inaction in terms of the increasing number of people clamouring to get on to trains and into car parks at railway stations. We learned recently that the next fleet of rail carriages is due in five years. Having raised this issue in the House consistently with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, and having been told that new carriages would be provided soon, we now learn it will be five years before we get them. If the Government was serious about public transport and climate change, these carriages would have been ordered when it took office and would be due for delivery for now, but that did not happen.

As matters stand, the Government is in the dock in the Four Courts in regard to its inaction on climate change. Its mitigation plan is being put through the shredder by a team of counsel. The outcome may have been announced during my contribution. The fact that the climate groups could put a stateable case to the High Court, taking the Government to court for a lack of action on climate change, speaks volumes about its approach. I hope we will see a difference in that approach. I look forward to the remainder of this debate and, I hope, to actions rather than words. We are at an emergency stage and we need much more than lip service. Fianna Fáil will not be found wanting in terms of putting its shoulders to the wheel. The Government is in the driving seat and it needs to get on board and make it happen.

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