Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies McNamara and Fitzmaurice.

I will pick up on Deputy Alan Farrell's last point. The one thing we have not done is empower local communities or people. We have patronised them and introduced a divisive carbon tax when what we needed was leadership, not just from this Government, but from previous governments as well. Climate change is an existential threat – I have no doubt about that. I have followed it in Galway when we led the way – not me, but the people on the ground. Another Deputy said that the people would follow. The people have done their damnedest. Actually, excuse the word. They have done their best to lead us. They did that in Galway. Does the Minister remember what happened when they led us in Galway and we introduced recycling? The then Government took the power away and brought in a waste management plan. The Government did not like what we were doing, which was zero waste in a positive way.

I have no problem with carbon budgets, but I support Deputy Paul Murphy's comments that they are not going far enough. We are in the third instalment of the IPCC's trinity of reporting, with this its sixth report. Its first report started more than 34 years ago in 1988. It has led the way forward. The first part of this instalment examined what was happening and warned that climate changes were becoming irreversible. The second part was its report in February, which focused on adaptation and warned of catastrophic impacts. The third report – this week's – focused on mitigation. As has been stated, without immediate and deep carbon emission reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach. The report goes on, but I will not quote the figures.

I am 100% behind the Government in terms of taking climate change measures. I have the greatest respect for my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group and, while I disagree with them, I understand their frustration. The carbon tax should never have been introduced, and certainly not in the manner it was. It is divisive and has repeatedly let Governments off the hook for providing proper leadership. We have no choice but to transform our society. Transformative action is urgently needed. Otherwise, we are finished. I make no apology for saying that.

We do it in a way, however, that benefits and empowers communities and stops the division. If we look at Galway and Connemara, seaweed and wool are two indigenous industries that should be thriving in those places but there is absolutely nothing. There is no policy for the islands. An interdepartmental committee has met repeatedly, starting in 1996 and again a year ago, but there has been nothing and no policy for the islands. Scotland was mentioned. It has a policy for its islands underpinned by legislation and the populations on those islands are increasing. That is not happening in Ireland. There is major potential in seaweed and wool for rural areas, but nothing is happening.

We have begged, implored and done everything possible to have a feasibility study carried out for light rail in Galway city so we can have a green, lean city, and can channel the energy and opportunities that are coming from the transformation. Instead, we are going down the cul-de-sac of an outer bypass that is going nowhere and will put more traffic on the road. We keep doing this. We keep dividing people from each other as opposed to asking how we can face this challenge together. As with neutrality, how will we use our voices to say this is the way forward, we will show you and we will be together in that, rather than the divisive nature of it?

Let us stick with Galway. I see the Minister rubbing his head. I rub my head all the time. I am surprised I still have hair because I am so utterly frustrated by what happened in Galway more than 22 years ago this year. The people there led us on recycling and light rail, for which 24,000 people signed a petition pleading for a sustainable way of running their city, for taking traffic off the road and bringing in park-and-ride. We put it into the city development plan in 2005. Management repeatedly told us it was too early to run it out, and now we have traffic congestion in Galway and no master plan for the common good. I have brought this to the Minister's attention. I realise he cannot do it on his own, but a voice has to be raised to ask that we do not keep doing this, and to say this is completely hypocritical and is against climate action and the policies that are supposedly sustainable. That is not what is happening on the ground.

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