Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I also thank the Independent group and, in particular, Senator Bacik for introducing this legislation. As a Member of the other House I introduced approximately half a dozen Bills with varying degrees of success — in fact none. I well know the difficulties in drafting a Bill to ensure it complies with the very strict rules that apply in respect of ensuring there are no cost implications for the State. It is very difficult for an Opposition Member to produce satisfactory legislation.

As part of an ongoing process of Oireachtas reform, however, the Green Party would like to facilitate Members of both Houses to contribute more to the legislative process. There are obvious areas that are the concern of the Government, including the day-to-day running of the country, the economy, defence, security and foreign affairs. However, responsibility for the making of legislation should be shared for both Houses of the Oireachtas and all Members. We all need to tackle the inequality in how legislation is produced to make us better legislators. On those grounds this is a fine Bill to produce, especially as it comes on only the fourth sitting day of the 23rd Seanad.

In general, my party can support the Bill because it covers precisely the matters we have been saying and repeats many of the commitments we have secured in the programme for Government. It is our hope that everything contained in this Bill will come to pass. However, a significant proviso needs to be added. I say this following the contribution of the main Opposition party. The wording in the programme for Government calls for cross-party agreement. We do not believe that party politics can be played with the issue of climate change and global warming. We need a type of Tallaght strategy for the environment, which might be particularly uncomfortable for the party opposite because it means collectively——