Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The first point I would make is that the prism through which the Deputy sees climate change really is in the overall world view he has about what he calls the political establishment, and his perception of an elite capitalist caste that is responsible for all the ills in the world and for climate change itself. He believes that nobody else has a role to play. As he does with every other issue, the Deputy is using climate change to attempt to bring down what he calls the capitalist system in the world, even though in a country like Ireland, the level of state involvement is enormous in terms of the economy and society. It does not fit neatly into the Deputy's ideological standpoint. I reject the approach that he is taking in respect of saying that the only way we can deal with climate change is to take down the world order and collapse governments everywhere and the system of enterprise that we have in Europe or elsewhere. That would create chaos and would not advance efforts to tackle climate change. That would be deeply dishonest and disingenuous.

All of us have a role to play in changing patterns of consumption and how we adapt and change our lifestyles. We have never said we are the best boys in the class, which the Deputy disingenuously asserted. We are behind as a country and we have to move very fast to catch up. One of the biggest issues with afforestation has been serial objections to every kind of forest over the past number of years. We need to broaden the range of trees that we plant in this country. Far more native trees must be planted. Schemes will emanate from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to create new income streams for farmers. The biggest issue we have in agriculture, for example, is encouraging and incentivising farmers in terms of connections to the grid, microgeneration, the use of solar panels and anaerobic digestion. I met with a farmer at COP26. I did not meet the Jeff Bezoses of this world at all. I met Tom Galvin from Dingle, who travelled to COP26 with a group from the Dingle peninsula. They are a very innovative and creative group of people who want to create a particular approach across the peninsula to this climate issue, and who, as I understand following my discussions with them, represent a model in terms of a multidisciplinary approach for how we can deal with this issue. Mr. Galvin informed me that approximately 100 farmers in the Dingle peninsula area have signed up to this approach. He said that we need to approach the issue from the ground up and work with farmers. I told him we would do that.

I met a group of young people from UCC at the conference. UCC is the only university in the country that is accredited to COP. The group travelled over to COP26, just as the Deputy will. They will be there over the next two weeks as part of the civic society contribution. I met many young people in Glasgow who are very enthused about what is happening. The Deputy can be very cynical and dismissive. That is fair enough; it is his perspective. One big change that occurred in the past five or six years was the US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. President Biden has brought the US back and has rejoined the agreement. He is also driving the agenda with the EU. Europe will be the first continent to be climate neutral by 2050, but, of course, the Deputy rejects the edifice of the EU and his view is that we should take it down too.

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