Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not intend to take my full allocation of time. I rise to support the Bill. The Labour Party unambiguously supports the Bill and we welcome it. We believe that given the level of correspondence we have received on the issue and the level of engagement we have had on it, particularly with the trade union movement, the Bill is timely and worthy of our support.

I respectfully take issue with the Minister's opening remarks. It appears his intention is to curtail the Bill with the provision of a money message. We feel this is a disappointing departure. It runs contrary to the spirit of the legislation and the views and recommendations of the Joint Committee on Climate Action. There is a very clear and unambiguous determination in the committee's report that a just transition taskforce would be established. While the Bill does not per secall for a just transition taskforce it does call for a just transition commission.

The Minister seeks to use the auspices of the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, as the mechanism by which many of the issues contained the Bill would be articulated. We see no reason the Minister could not continue to use the NESC as a valuable resource for the Government and ensure a policy direction that is consistent between all of the stakeholders.

The point is that the Government is not the sole stakeholder or owner of this agenda any more. Just like our colleagues in the UK House of Commons, we must recognise there is a shift of emphasis towards the Members of the House and towards the sovereignty of Parliament relative to the powers of the Executive. I am a little bit worried that the Minister in his statement seeks to undermine the legislation. By my interpretation, he has expressed an opinion that the power of the Government would be usurped by the enactment of such legislation. The Minister will correct me if I am wrong but this is certainly my impression. We do need coherence on the recommendation of the joint committee on the very specific task of establishing a just transition taskforce in 2019 and the intention of the Bill, which is the establishment of the commission. Perhaps on Committee Stage we can iron out some of these potential differences. The Bill has the potential to give voice to the Minister's opinion or intention on the use of the NESC as a tool in a complementary way to ensure we can drive the agenda of a low carbon or carbon zero economy and society.

As I have said, I have received much correspondence in respect of this issue. The Labour Party made the establishment of the just transition taskforce a red line issue during the course of our deliberations in the Joint Committee on Climate Action. We wanted to ensure there would be no watering down of this proposal by those on the Government side. We wanted to ensure we would give voice to those stakeholders in civil society who feel strongly that they have a voice that is equal to that of the Government and that the voice of the Citizens' Assembly would be heard in terms of the implementation of Government policy.

We have no hesitation in supporting the Bill. We will seek to amend and strengthen it. By our reading, the Bill sets out a very clear set of functions in section 5 but we are just a little bit fearful that some of the functions may not be robust enough to ensure the idea of a just transition is firmly fixed in policy provision.

7 o’clock

We argue for policy coherence between the Government and the Oireachtas with an equal role between the two. Where a legislative proposal is robust and worthy of enactment, it should be supported. We have no hesitation in supporting this legislation. We look forward to working with our colleagues in the Green Party to ensure that the people we seek to represent on this issue whose voices have made themselves heard since the publication of this Bill and during the Citizens' Assembly are accurately and robustly reflected in the legislation.

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