Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Ceann Comhairle on his election. I nominate Deputy Eamon Ryan for appointment by the President to be Taoiseach.

On Monday, I stood in the back garden of the home of David and Sharon Shevlin of the Burrow, Portrane, in my constituency of Dublin Fingal. The Shevlins are just one of a number of families in Portrane who have seen their homes rapidly shrink and disappear in recent years due to increased coastal erosion and extreme weather events. Mr. Shevlin reckons that 13 m of land has disappeared from behind his house in the last two years alone. If another half a metre goes, the house will be uninhabitable. As predicted some years ago, we are now getting wetter winters, more storms, and extreme weather events are increasing. This is impacting our infrastructure, our food systems, the way we live, and for the Shevlins, their very home. We continue to make a mess of the planet.

However, there is hope, and there is also more and better than hope; there is opportunity. This Dáil has an opportunity to develop and implement policies that will not only tackle climate change and its implications, but will provide quality homes for people which will stand the test of time, like so many of those built in the 1970s. There is an opportunity to develop a public transport system that will help clean up our air, give people time back in their lives and allow our children to walk or cycle safely to school. There is an opportunity for Ireland to be a net energy exporter and help insulate our economy from overexposure to global shocks. There is an opportunity to ensure that family farms such as the one on which I grew up can adapt and have a viable economic future.

Deputies may be thinking that this speech is not about Eamon Ryan. We are not big into personality politics in the Green Party, but I will say this much: sometimes real leadership emerges not when there is a big shiny prize to be won, but when the going is really tough and there are no thanks or plaudits to be had. Deputy Eamon Ryan has proven himself in that regard over the last nine years, not just when there were only two Green TDs, but also when he toiled away with positivity outside of this House when we had no TDs. We have 12 today. Deputy Eamon Ryan also encapsulates a spirit that must be central to the Thirty-third Dáil if it is to succeed, that is, the spirit of collaboration, reaching out to others and working with people with whom one might not have worked or dreamed of working before. My party colleagues and I look forward to sitting down with some of them over the next week or two, in order that we can get closer to doing the job for which we were all elected.

I will make a final point on leadership. As the Ceann Comhairle mentioned earlier today, about three months ago young people from every county in Ireland sat in these very seats, pleading with the political system to take action on climate change. I want to remind everyone of the Youth Assembly on Climate Change that took place in this House. I acknowledge the leadership of the young people all over the country and thank them for standing up and speaking up for their future. It is now up to us to look after their future.

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