Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the people of Dublin South-West for placing their trust in me, and particularly thank my parents, Mary and Maurice, my wife, Maeve, and our son, Fionn, for all their support, without which I just would not be here.

I also extend my personal congratulations to the Taoiseach and all the Ministers appointed today. Their success will be our success.

However, I must say I am deeply concerned at the lack of ambition on climate in the programme for Government and, indeed, the lack of priority in their speeches today for it. The Greens may be gone from Government but the climate emergency remains the greatest collective challenge facing our country and facing this world. I fear that many of the proposals in the programme for Government and even some of the individuals involved in this Government contradict any notion of positive climate action. What hope have we of reducing transport emissions and increasing the use of public transport and cycling as viable options if the major policy change of this Government is to pour more Tarmac and induce more private traffic? This new Government has also opened the door to more data centres, but bowing to the needs of the tech billionaires without a net increase in renewable electricity is irresponsible, contradicts our climate obligations and increases electricity costs for ordinary people. We must secure Ireland's energy future. We must provide thousands of new green jobs.

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