Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will not indulge in it as a political movement. I say the same thing to the strikers that I have said to my own two climate strikers, namely, that we will not let the Government get away with it either. We have had a carbon tax here for ten years and emissions have risen massively. That is the fact of the matter. Those who commend carbon tax do so only in the context of alternatives available to citizens to trigger the behavioural change needed. The Minister knows this, but he is taking the lazy approach. The easy and lazy thing to do is to have a go at Sinn Féin or anybody on the left who understands climate justice and a just transition have to be about more than passing the buck and punishing people who are poorer in society. It has to be about systemic change, but it seems that the Minister does not have the belly for this. I asked him to drop his hike in carbon tax in favour of investment in a real and radical plan that would make a difference and reduce emissions. Is he prepared to do this in the budget?

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