David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am nearly finished but I responded to the Senator.

I do not accept the Minister of State's weak response. She has not addressed why clear targets have not been set but spoke about the national policy, which falls short by far. Ireland has a big problem with climate change but it is not on its own. I accept that Ireland is not as bad as a lot of other European countries and does a lot better than many other countries but globally we are failing. We have not arrested the problem, so the current situation is deteriorating. It will deteriorate even further unless we get our act together. Many very powerful senior politicians in other areas seem to take climate change more seriously than this State does. It is for those reasons that I shall press the amendments to a vote.