Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the last question, I do not. There is a whole range of other international treaties that will affect climate change. The energy charter treaty is a very specific energy treaty that has all sorts of mixed implications on climate, some pro and some of which would give rise to concerns, so it is very complicated. The recent Brexit agreement is going to affect how we approach climate and there is a whole range of new treaties coming. The issue of trade and climate is critical and a variety of different trade agreements and other structures will affect that. I have not had any sense that CETA will have a direct impact but we will continue to review that. I know various Oireachtas committees are looking at it.

I want to make one point in regard to the Deputy's comment on speed of delivery and political action. With regard to the collaborative approach I mentioned, in this country in the last three years, Deputy Pringle's Bill delivered an end to investing in fossil fuels, a similar Bill from Fine Gael in the last Dáil delivered an end to fracking on our part of the island and Deputy Bríd Smith's Bill on ending oil and gas exploration - we had a similar one - is about to bear fruit when, on Committee Stage of the climate Bill, we will introduce the provisions to stop oil and gas exploration. We are effectively stopping the use of coal and we have stopped the use of industrial peat extraction. If anyone had said to me four years ago that we would stop State investment in fossil fuels, stop fracking, stop the use of coal and stop peat extraction, I would have said that to do that in such a time period was a remarkable achievement. We should collectively recognise that politics sometimes does deliver and that in the sort of actions that have been made in the last three to four years, we have achieved significant change.

See this speech in context