Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

Climate change is here. The Minister of State knows this. It is very real. Coastal towns in constituencies like mine are very much on the front line of this emergency. Extreme weather is inevitable and the Government’s record on climate preparedness is absolutely shocking. Yesterday, The Irish Times reported that the EPA has published its latest projections in respect of Ireland’s climate targets for 2030. Those projections are very bad news for Ireland. The State has the worst emissions levels per capita in Europe. Projections show that our greenhouse gas emissions will fall by just 23% by 2030 compared with our original target of 51%, according to the EPA. Stop Climate Chaos has described these emissions levels as both alarming and shocking. The latest figures indicate that none of the State’s biggest emitters, namely the transport, agriculture and electricity sectors, will meet their climate targets. In most sectors, emissions are continuing to rise. We know what is going to happen if we do not hit those targets. Ireland will potentially be fined up to €26 billion. In light of its record, the Government is either not prepared or is incapable of taking the necessary action.

We know we are going to face more extreme weather events and that this Government and those that succeed it are going to have to deal with them. The most recent extreme weather event this island experienced was Storm Éowyn, which showed up a number of things. First, it showed the meitheal that exists within our local communities. People showed up for each other. People and local communities came out and looked after and helped each other. It also showed that communities and individuals were badly let down by the Government’s failure to plan. Deficiencies in infrastructure and a lack of basic things such as access to generators left vulnerable people badly exposed.

I will mention a case which I mentioned at the time of the storm. It relates to a young woman who uses a power-assisted wheelchair and who was completely stranded for days. She could not leave the house, move around, go to college or get out to do any shopping. She was literally stranded. She needed a generator and access to power to charge the battery on her wheelchair. While we know vulnerable people will need access to generators and community hubs, in many cases, when people went to the community centres, they found them in a poor state of repair. Now is the time for the Government to be planning. It is the time for the Government to look at the humanitarian assistance scheme and how it operated. While it was great at advertising all the forms people had to fill out, it was not so good at getting the money to people when they needed it. I urge the Minister of State to recognise that now is the time to plan. The Government does not seem interested in taking action on climate change. As a result, it must plan for the climate disasters that are going to happen.

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