Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Having listened to the Minister's response, and indeed to the debate, one of the most honest contributions came from Deputy Bruton. It was honest because he let the cat out of the bag as far as the Government is concerned when he said there is no way we can look after everybody, there is no way we can guarantee people's incomes will remain the same and there is no way everybody will be bailed out. That is the meaning of just transition for him. However, interestingly enough, the reality for him and for the Minister is that we will guarantee and continue to guarantee that we will maintain the same inequalities across society, if not deepen them. That is because what this Bill does is look after the richest, the 1% on this planet who benefit most from the destruction of this planet. For example, the giant corporations, the likes of Amazon, Google and Ebay, will continue with unlimited expansion through the mushrooming of data centres throughout this country, consuming, as the Minister knows, the bulk of our renewable electricity and millions upon millions of gallons of water. We have just heard the imposition of water charges on the population being mentioned again.

The Minister said that just transition runs throughout the whole Bill. I am sorry but it does not. The Minister should read his own Bill again. Just transition is mentioned once, and mentioned with a get-out clause in the form of the following wording, "... in so far as is practicable ... [we will] support persons and communities that may be negatively affected ...". If is not practicable, as Deputy Bruton said it was not, according to the continued injustice we have and the inequality across society, then we will maintain that and continue that and deepen it. That is not just transition. That is why we have endeavoured to define and spell out what just transition means. The Minister has even refused amendments that would delete the words "in so far as is practicable". In so far as is practicable, the Minister is protecting the status quo and at the same trying to do the impossible. He must make stark choices and the choice he has made here is to throw ordinary people under the bus to allow corporations to flourish.

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