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

The Climate Action Plan 2021 sets out where we are going. The plan will be revised and assessed this autumn. We learn by doing. This will make for a better country. Waving fingers at or blaming people is no good. Doing this as a device of politics whereby someone is identified as being to blame or having responsibility does not work.

This country is well placed to make the leap. One of the reasons for this is that in recent years we have worked in a collaborative and collective way and recognised that where there are hard decisions to be made, we will make them because at least it is collective. They will be hard decisions, particularly, as I have said, in respect of transport and the need to reallocate road space. In truth, where I find real challenge is in that area.

There will also be hard decisions - but, I believe, the right ones - in the areas of agriculture, forestry and land use. We have a real issue with land use because the figures issued yesterday show that it is a further source of rather than a sink for carbon. That is also the case for industry. Certain industries are going to find it hard and will have to have to adapt and accommodate to the climate challenge. On this side of the House and in our party, we will show real leadership in standing up for what we have always stood up for, namely, ecological justice matched by social justice on the part of government, both local and central, and the Opposition, which has a role to play.

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