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

As well as a horrific pandemic with death and tragic consequences for so many people around the world, we are also living in a real-life experiment of what it is to implement the most far-reaching changes imaginable in terms of people's habits. The Minister spoke earlier about the need for everyone to change their habits. I agree with that, but who could have imagined the kind of changes in people's habits that currently are taking place? Consumption has collapsed and huge parts of the economy have effectively been in cold storage for months. What is the impact of that in terms of climate change? The projected impact on a global basis is that global emissions will only drop by 8%. That is completely inadequate as well as completely unsustainable because of the way it is being done. What is the conclusion from that? The conclusion is that there is no solution to the climate crisis, which is coming toward us extremely fast and with horrific consequences, within the framework of the profit system. There is no solution to it as long as the decisions about our economy are made by the big oil companies. There is no solution to it as long as the decisions about the nature of our agriculture are made by big agribusiness. It underlines the desperate need for system change instead of climate change. It makes the case for that change to be socialist change whereby the key sections of the economy are in democratic public ownership and that we are able to plan to put people's needs, and our planet's needs, before profit.

To be more concrete, I give an example and a comparison between the drop in electricity usage between the South of Ireland and the North. In the North, electricity consumption has fallen by 20% but in the South it has only fallen by 10%. The underlying reason, in a more concrete way, demonstrates that point. The developmental model that the Government has chosen is not sustainable in terms of our environment because that 10% difference is made up basically of data centres. It is a core part of Government policy to attract big multinational companies to establish data centres here that provide very little in the way of ongoing jobs. They are expected to add at least 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually to our emissions by 2028 but the Government designates them as critical infrastructure in order to be able to attract more of them. It demonstrates that the Government is not putting the interests of our people or our planet first.

I agree with the slogan of ICTU - No Going Back. For me, what that speaks to is that there is no going back to a society where it is okay for people to get worse healthcare because they are poorer.

It speaks to the need not to go back to a situation where evictions are legal. We were told it was unconstitutional to make evictions illegal. A similar situation applies to increases in rents. There is no going back to the disconnection of people from nature and the pressurised, stressed lives many people still have, but which were the norm for almost everybody before the pandemic. There is a substantial task for the trade union movement and the left to produce a vision and build a movement to fight for that sort of eco-socialist change we need. That should be based around the idea of a green new deal with socialist policies. The interests of climate justice absolutely overlap with the need for social justice and how we are going to function safely and in a healthy way with the situation caused by coronavirus.

For people to travel safely, we need substantial investment in public transport. That means private operators will not be able to make a profit like they did in the past. We should just invest, treat it as a public service and make it free. There should be free, significantly expanded public transport for all. We need a significant increase in the number of care jobs in society. To be able to teach properly, we need many more teachers. To have proper healthcare, we need many more doctors and nurses. To be able to have proper childcare, we need more people working in that area. All of that requires a significant investment. They are low carbon, quality jobs. Similarly, we need fewer people to be in crowded workplaces and a four-day week without loss of pay. The only way we will get any of those things is with a movement. They will not come from a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government but require a movement from below.

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