Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced the welcome decision - one for which People Before Profit has been campaigning for quite some time - to cease issuing new gas and oil exploration licences. Of course, it then emerges that the gas and oil companies are welcoming this because all the existing licences as well as ones such as Barryroe that are up for extension, renewal or adaptation will continue. This means we will have licences extending to 2034. In the face of a climate emergency, we are actually planning to facilitate the further extraction of fossil fuels with all the damage that does to our environment and future. Does the Taoiseach not believe that we should not only cease issuing new licences but that we should not renew, extend or in any way adapt existing licences to facilitate the extraction of fossil fuels?

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