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

I agree with the Deputy and the Labour Party leader, Deputy Kelly, that we need to think long term. I also believe that the response to the climate challenges requires a politics of collaboration and co-operation. This is not an issue that should divide us. It is not a party political issue. It is an intergenerational issue but it is one we must tackle together.

Probably the most contentious area of the just transition is agriculture. I am firmly of the view that we need to start paying a new generation of young farmers and foresters to be part of this transition. One of the benefits, as we pay for nature-based solutions, will fall to the poorer areas of our country, which are often are more regional and rural areas distant from the major cities. The climate response is going to require massive investment and redistribution, as it were, through carbon taxing and other measures, including via the Common Agricultural Policy, whereby we invest in those areas for the restoration and protection of nature as part of our climate adaptation and mitigation strategy. That will be a part of our just transition.

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