Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

What is the balance sheet of the Government, which includes the Green Party, on environmental issues? The Taoiseach will, no doubt, tell me greenhouse gas emissions fell in most sectors last year, but the Climate Change Advisory Council says the fall is not nearly big enough to meet our modest climate obligations. The target for reduced emissions for 2030 is 51%. What is the Government headed for? It is 29%. How does the Environmental Protection Agency rate Government performance? On nature, very poorly; on water, poorly; on climate, poorly; on waste, poorly; on air quality and pollution, only moderately.

As the Government heads for the door, it is building fossil fuel infrastructure for liquified natural gas. At a time when real urgency is called for, the Green Party has failed to deliver the changes we need. A far more radical approach is necessary. Central to this will be building a movement of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands on the streets to demand action and identifying a capitalist system which puts profit before the environment as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

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