Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Chathaoirligh. I also offer my congratulations on your election to the Chair. You were a great ally to me when we were doing the "Free Ibrahim" campaign and I hope we can continue to work together on such human rights issues.

I remember in 2009 when I was tallying in a community centre in Kerry and I realised then that there is no challenge more futile than a Dub trying to get elected in Kerry. That is my Kerry story for the record today.

It is an immensely proud day for me. I am from a working-class background, the daughter of a bus driver who grew up in Tallaght. I know there are kids now in Tallaght who are looking and saying that they too can take up a position in the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is for them that one likes to demonstrate and put forward that our Oireachtas is for everybody, and long may it continue that working-class people can aspire to be Members here.

It is a huge honour and I hope I can bring my experience from being both a Member of the European Parliament but also having been an ecologist. I have worked in forestry and in environmental education. There are some positives within the programme for Government that we can certainly work together on in this House and while they are unclear, they are positives. They include the increased investment in public transport and the introduction of carbon budgets. However, it cannot go unnoticed that the climate action plan in the programme for Government is wrapped up in the same business-as-usual economic policy. I am passionate about climate justice. Climate justice is not just about the historical responsibility of who created the emissions. It is not just about ensuring those who are in the global south will be protected from the worst impacts of climate change. Climate justice is about ensuring the inequalities we have in our society in this country are not exacerbated by the policies we take for climate action. I refer to those of us who are on the left. I believe in left and right politics because it is important we have that ideology and know where we stand on issues. I care deeply about climate change. I want a green new deal that offers hope and a better quality of life for all of our citizens, not just the same old citizens who benefit every time.

I witnessed during the lockdown people sneering at those who queued up outside Penneys to avail of cheap clothes and try to clothe their family on low incomes. The same people who sneered at those queueing to go into Penneys are the same people who balk when we talk about a wealth tax that would really address the high levels of consumption and consumerism.

Likewise, there is talk of electric cars in the programme for Government. That is all well and good, but working families are driving diesel cars they were incentivised to buy the previous time the Green Party was in government. They are now in a position where they are asking whether they are going to have to pay more to drive their car to get to work and are not in a position to upgrade to an electric vehicle.

Equally, renters who have looked at the programme for Government and heard all the talk about retrofitting are living in their D,E and G-rated households. What can they do? They can do nothing but suck up the carbon tax because they cannot change their living conditions.

What I hope to bring to this House is to work tirelessly with all of the politicians on all sides, and with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, when he comes into this House, to put forward proposals, but we must have climate justice at the heart of our climate action. We want to live up to our international obligations on greenhouse gas emissions, but we cannot leave huge sections of society behind. It is not just about the unfairness of doing that, it is also about the fact that we will lose any political will that exists among working-class communities across this island to buy into the need to take climate action. We must work with climate justice and social justice at the heart of any climate action. That is what I want to bring to the table. I look forward to working with all Members but I will remind them that we will have no climate action if we do not have climate justice.