Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to place on record my thanks to the Friends of the Irish Environment, which has brought a case against the Government on the inconsistency it has shown in the context of its national, EU and global obligations. I thank it for taking that case and for raising awareness regarding our lack of delivery.

I welcome the Minister. I wish him much success in his new Ministry, which deals with a matter that is so important to everybody on this island and the planet. The Minister stated that we want to become leaders rather than being followers. In many ways, I wish that we were even followers at this stage but we are not because we are not achieving anything like what we should be. There was a time when we were leaders, however. We were leaders in offshore wind generation. That is no longer the case. We were leaders in legislation when what became the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 was brought through both Houses. That showed true leadership because we were one of only three European countries to put environment legislation on our Statute Book at that time. We were leaders when we set up the Climate Change Advisory Council. I am glad that we did so because it has been extremely informative regarding the lack of delivery on the part of this Government in respect of our international obligations. Professor John FitzGerald has become a voice for many people in this country when he raises this lack of delivery over and over again.

We were leaders in 2015 when we included in the legislation in question a provision to the effect that Ministers would be answerable to the people regarding the reduction of climate change gasses. Ministers were supposed to make statements to the Houses, engage in debate and be answerable for delivery in this area by their Departments. This was supposed to be done on the basis of a whole-of-Government approach. In that context, prior to Christmas, Ministers queued up to make five-minute contributions in this House before making the 30-second dash back out the door. At the end of that debate, a mere five minutes were allocated for a response. That is neither accountability nor a whole-of-Government approach, it is a failure on the part of the Government to take climate change seriously.

I hope we are witnessing a sense of change but I will only believe that when we see delivery. It is only last year that we debated the protection of hedgerows and Members of this House were prepared to allow the destruction of same. I find it quite difficult to listen to a Senator talking about protecting our environment and our climate this afternoon when he made a remark in the House asking what else could be done with farm machinery in August other than cut the hedges. I question the level of commitment that is there in light of such remarks. As a result, I will believe in delivery when I see it.

The Minister referred to the Pacific Islands in-----