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

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

It is time for us to take action as signatories of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is time, five years after the signing of the Paris climate agreement, for us to start to show real ambition and bring this home. It is also time for hope. There is some hope in this country these days that we may be able to manage the worst of this Covid-19 pandemic and start to see days that are slightly brighter than the hard days we have seen in the past year and a half. The issues of our health and our treatment of our climate are inextricably linked. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization has said that, from his extensive experience, pandemics are coming because we have not, in our time, protected the natural world. The destruction of the biome, as he puts it, is the reason we are seeing these pandemics coming at us in a way that is destroying our lives.

There are health connections and benefits from the actions we will take. We will have a more active social transport system. We will have clean air because we will not burn fossil fuels, thereby protect our lungs, hearts and heads. We will build a connection to nature which is one thing we have seen in this time of Covid when the protection of nature has become all the more real, important and special to us. It is clearly time for us to act because the natural world is in crisis and being destroyed before our eyes. We have witnessed it within my lifetime and must stop it. That is the biggest risk and challenge. It puts Covid in the shade in terms of the risks that it brings to our people. It is for that reason we are seeing other countries starting to step up and say they too want to act. I believe there were some signs of hope yesterday, as there are today and, I hope, there will be tomorrow. The UK Government has expressed real ambition in what it is going to do. The EU stated earlier today that it is going to set ambitious targets for action on climate. The US Government is likely to do the same tomorrow. These are massive, dramatic and significant changes to how we address climate change. When I attend tomorrow's leaders' summit on climate action, called by President Biden, I am glad that I will be able to say with certainty on behalf of Ireland that we share that ambition and stand up for climate justice. I will say that we are ready to stand up as a signatory to the Paris climate agreement and turn that into real action and give it meaning and force. I will do so humbled by the knowledge that by any comparison, our per capita emissions are high. We must show significant change in how we are addressing these matters but I believe we can and will do that. The vote we have just taken signifies that our people are ready for this. We are ready to show leadership and will no longer be called laggards. We are ready and it is time for us to act on climate change.

I am proud of the Green Party's role in this. For 40 years, we have stood on a ticket that we are in a moment of ecological crisis and must react. We have stood on the understanding that the solution to that crisis has to come from democratic, peaceful and participative politics. Is lá fíor-stairiúl é don Comhaontas Glas. It is a proud day for our party and for the thousands of people with whom we have worked over the years to bring this sort of legislation to this floor.

I am glad it is time that the Bill is read a Second Time.

But it is not just our party: the key point is that it is consensual and that it is broadly accepted. This involves everyone. Every place is going to matter. What gives me real confidence is what has happened to this country in the past five years and the politics of climate change. Starting with that Citizens' Assembly where, on a scientific basis, we brought in 100 citizens, presented the best evidence and analysis and then stood back as they came back to us with really ambitious recommendations. That was behind what has ended up here today as we read this Bill for the Second Time.

I am very proud of the Oireachtas and the way we set up an Oireachtas joint committee to work on this on a participative, collective and collaborative basis, and the really good work it did in the previous Oireachtas. It is time for the Bill to be read because the Chairman, Deputy Leddin, and the committee members have put in the time. The committee sat for 50 hours in private session and it had weeks of hearings when it brought in the best experts. It is time we read the Bill now on Second Stage, taking into account the 78 amendments the committee recommended, the vast majority of which have been implemented in the Bill.

It is time as well to thank the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, our coalition partners in government, because they do get it. They really believe that as a country we can be good at this and their support and commitment in the programme for Government was critical in getting the legislation to this Stage. I look forward to working with them on implementing the provisions that we are about to legislate for. I say the same to every other party because this is not a Bill that just applies to this Oireachtas or this Government, this is something that will be there to guide at least six if not seven or more Governments over the next 30 years. It must not be a stop-start change, but it must be consistent, collective and agreed upon.

If we are to thank anyone for getting to this Stage in reading this Bill today for the Second Time, I wish to single out the students, teachers and their friends and families who stood outside the Dáil every Friday in rail, hail, sleet and snow for so long and were part of the international movement of young students who stood up and said it was time for them to act, that another world was possible and that they are unstoppable when they think in that way. I thank them on our behalf in this Oireachtas because I think it was their influence at a critical time in this country and across the world that set the scene which allowed for those more ambitious targets that will be discussed at President Biden's meeting tomorrow, in the European Union today and that was discussed in the UK yesterday. To my mind, they are the ones who deserve the credit for this legislation and they are the ones who will have to implement most of it, who will be the beneficiaries of the real, positive and hopeful developments this legislation will bring. Not only does it protect us from the risk climate change brings, it also delivers a new energy economy where we in this country have a comparative competitive advantage. There are jobs for young people in this. Their digital skills will be key in how we do efficiency. It will lead to balanced regional development because our power will be dispersed right across the country. The Rural Independents know that. This is going to be the future for the west, south west, north west, east and midlands. This is going to be good for rural Ireland. I am absolutely convinced of that.

It is also going to be good for the transport system, electrifying it and using our own power supplies rather than buying it in from abroad. It is a social transformation because it will be a modal shift towards public transport and active travel, which creates a stronger sense of community and connection and reduces the amount of travel we have to do.

This is the future for Irish agriculture. It will mean the protection of the Irish family farm. This is the chance for us to pay a whole generation of young new farmers-----

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