Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

People across the country better hope that politicians' hot air will not be covered by the carbon tax. If it is, we will be paying massive amounts of tax for the performances of the Taoiseach, who loves to go abroad, present himself as a champion for the climate and other progressive issues and pretend he is leading the way. At home, however, the policies remain the same. He remains bound to the interests of big agribusiness in this country and increasingly to the interests of fossil capitalism and big oil internationally.

He went to the UN and said that we will introduce a moratorium or ban on future exploration for oil. Good, let us see it happen. Let us pay tribute to those who are responsible for putting the pressure on Varadkar to go so far, such as Deputy Bríd Smith and people outside in Extinction Rebellion, the climate strikers and those involved in the movements putting pressure on the Taoiseach. However, he went on very deliberately to draw a distinction between oil and gas, based on a sketchy note from the Climate Change Advisory Council, and to persist with the Government mantra about gas being a transition fuel. It is anything but, and sticking with it involves sticking with fossil fuels and carbon emissions and not making the rapid transition we need to a zero-carbon economy by 2030 and to renewable energy.

I wish to refer to some points made by Professor Barry McMullin of Dublin City University, DCU, who wrote a scathing article in Green Newsabout the advisory note the Government is relying on so heavily with regard to gas. He concluded, "In effect, it appears that the CCAC has strayed into embedding a tacit, and ultimately repugnant, politicalpremise (namely, a globally unjusttransition) as a basis for its supposedly purely scientificadvice". The reality is that we must transition not from oil to gas but from oil, gas and fossil fuels to green energy. Ireland is better placed to do it than almost any other country in the world. It could be leading the way in that and in the creation of green jobs as well.

It is not accidental that such a distinction is being made at a time when the Government wants to push ahead, without any democratic oversight and with public money, with a massive LNG terminal. What is involved in that is not just any gas, but fracked gas, which is significantly extra-dirty gas, with significantly more carbon. It also represents significant health problems such as cancer and the like for people where gas is fracked. It is incredibly cynical of the Government to agree to a ban on fracking here yet to think it is okay to import massive amounts of fracked gas from the US, store it and distribute it across the rest of Europe. It is incoherent and inconsistent with any idea that it understands the climate catastrophe we are facing and the urgent action that is required. Signing up for such a LNG terminal and spending such money on it will mean investing in fossil fuel infrastructure that will continue to operate for decades, up to 2050 at least. It shows the Government simply does not get it. Only a movement of people taking mass, non-violent, direct action next week as part of the second Extinction Rebellion week and mass strike action will force it to take the action we need to implement the rapid green and just transition that is required.

See this speech in context