Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to contribute on this important matter. Every day we are made aware of the climate emergency that we currently face. As individuals, we have a duty to try to reduce our carbon footprint, decrease our use of single-use plastic and be more environmentally conscious about our day-to-day activities. We have moved as a society. However, the Government is not serious enough about what it is trying to achieve, despite Ireland being one of the first countries to declare a climate emergency. I refer to the significant effort the people of west Cork had to go to last year, including the cost of a High Court challenge, to stop a plastics factory in Skibbereen and to stop the harvesting of kelp off Bantry Bay, which would have been an environmental disaster. If the Minister had the interests of the environment at heart, he could have stopped it from going ahead, since there was provision for him do so.

Only few months ago on Leaders' Questions, I asked the Taoiseach to help to set up a park-and-ride service from west Cork to the train station daily. If this was run properly, hundreds of cars would be taken off our roads daily in west Cork, but when the proposal met the Minister, Deputy Ross' claws, he threw it out. We are very lucky to have a private operator, Damien Long, who is now opening a new daily service from west Cork to Cork. It took a private operator to take on the work of the State so that cars could be taken off the road. Instead, this Government has made continued attacks on rural and farming communities about the negative effects that their livelihoods are supposedly having on the environment and how we should reduce our red meat intake. I reject this as a total red herring. If all our farmers decided to stop working tomorrow and close shop, it would make little or no impact on our environment and have a much greater negative one on our economy. We need to find a reasonable and a functioning balance. Last year, when our Taoiseach was in Europe, our European counterparts called Ireland environmental laggards. It is no wonder because we are making sensational statements but engaging in little action on the ground. Instead of the High Court intervening regarding the harvesting of kelp in Bantry Bay, the Government could have intervened and made sure there was no environmental disaster. Instead of taking tens of thousands of cars off the roads in rural areas, the Government could have worked on transport but did not. The Minister needs to get his own house in order before he starts to point at everybody else.

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