Results 5,401-5,420 of 8,245 for speaker:Bríd Smith

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I confirm I am on the campus of Leinster House. This is an historic move by the Minister. It is exceedingly welcome. Ireland will be among a handful of countries across the globe that will be banning oil and gas exploration. I worry, however, why the Minister has felt the need to double down in this Bill on existing legislation, thereby allowing companies that have licences to move on to...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: The Minister said he expects this will not have to happen. It is a bit like crossing our fingers and hoping it will not. It is a real shame that the provision is being included in the Bill because we have not, in fact, entered into contracts with any of the relevant companies. They have licences, which is quite different. What the Minister is saying is that, regardless of how...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I do not agree but I am not putting it to a vote.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I agree with Deputy Duncan Smith. It is important that we start and continue through the Bill acknowledging that the point of all of this is to limit the increase in global average temperatures by 1.5°C. It is important that is enshrined in the Bill along with a just transition so I support the amendment.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I hear what the Minister is saying, that he is here to listen, is willing to listen and he is hearing us and all the rest of it, but Deputy Pringle put it very well when he stated it is a bit of a headbanging exercise. That is not fair to us. We all have a lot to do and if the Minister is going to reject amendments we should know that from the outset, rather than go through these things one...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: Deputy Naughten makes a good case for the farming sector. We should start by acknowledging that the farming sector is challenged by our climate change objectives. However, I would make a distinction between the vested interests of the agrifood business and the family farm. The Deputy spoke about how we needed to deal with the increase in the herd over the past ten years. It has been...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I am shutting up now, which I am sure the Chairman will be delirious about.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I agree that this is extremely important. There is a plethora of similar amendments here and it would be good if the Government could go back and change the Bill, which was originally peppered with the phrase "in so far as is practicable". There was a huge amount of comment on the matter and a request to change it. The Government did so in respect of most of the text of the Bill but not in...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: Will the Minister comment on our proposed removal of the wording "in so far as is practicable"?

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I move amendment No. 13: In page 6, to delete lines 26 to 30 and substitute the following: "'climate justice' means the requirement that decisions and actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change must: (a) support the people who are most affected by climate change but who have done the least to cause it and are the least equipped to...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I move amendment No. 16: In page 6, to delete lines 31 to 33 and substitute the following: "'climate neutral economy' means a sustainable economy and society where greenhouse gas emissions are balanced or exceeded by the removal of greenhouse gases by nature based solutions with no reliance on the purchase of carbon credits, off-sets or other market based mechanisms or unproven...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: While it certainly does not explicitly include offsetting, the Bill leaves it wide open. It is a very weak provision, which is why propose to insert the sentence in the amendment. The Bill is very weak and while it does not exclude offsetting, it could, by definition, leave it in. We should set about excluding offsets and carbon credits and remove any possibility of them being used to...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: This amendment is in recognition of the campaigning done up and down the country against liquified natural gas, LNG, of which the Minister is aware. This is a recognition that it is a very important issue. I am aware that we will deal with it in the rapporteur's report and we will have a different conversation about it in the committee, but we need to deal with it in the Bill. We must...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I move amendment No. 18: In page 6, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “ ‘complete decarbonisation’ means zero energy emissions, combined with nature-based solutions that enhance biodiversity to sequester greenhouse gases from sectors where some emissions remain inevitable;”. There could be different versions of "net zero". The term does not...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: On the question of just transition and taxes, what is happening is an attempt to tax people's behaviour without making alternatives available to them. Pushing up carbon taxes for ordinary people is pushing up their heating bills. Some people have poorly insulated homes, by any standards, and cannot afford to have them retrofitted. Bringing in the taxes first, without addressing that...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: I move amendment No. 20: In page 6, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “ ‘Just Transition’ means a transition to complete decarbonisation which: (a) ensures that communities and individuals adversely affected by the move to complete decarbonisation are supported and provided with work and opportunities that retain their livelihoods and standards of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Projects (1 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: 3. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the resource efficiency action plan for 2021 of his Department. [26510/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Projects (1 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: Covid, probably more than anything else, has shown us how people, particularly workers, are our best resource. Workers, not only those on the front line but also others of all hues, beaver away doing essential tasks and allowing society to tick over. While we sit here debating the greater things in life, we rarely think of the centrality of workers in our society. We rarely think of them...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (1 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: 15. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his most recent engagements with the social partners. [29785/21]

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Vaccination Programme (1 Jun 2021)

Bríd Smith: 138. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if there is a protocol or instruction to employers to facilitate employees with time off in order to attend for Covid-19 vaccination; his views on reports of some employers insisting that employees must make the vaccine appointments at their own expense and that in some cases this is proving to act as a deterrent against getting...