Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would first like to note the decision made by the Supreme Court in respect of Climate Case Ireland. It is a very important reminder of how seriously we need to act on climate change. It is not simply that we need to be acting on mitigating and adapting to climate change but that we also need to ensure we are not taking actions that take us in the wrong direction. I hope we will now see the same passion that sometimes goes into the defence of property rights applied to the Supreme Court decision that tells us that climate action is a fundamental responsibility and that the State has to do more.

I join those who thanked all of the public servants in this House for their work, recognising that we are ourselves public servants, that we have to do our work and that sometimes that will be calling votes. However, it is very important to thank all the public servants here and those across Ireland. I would strongly point out that the remarks made this week in respect of public servants were unacceptable because it was our public services, in the most difficult circumstances in the very darkest times of this crisis, who kept people going across the country. That is very important and it is the reason public services, and investment in public servants' pay and conditions, and new imagined public services such as taking areas into public service as described earlier, be it in residential care and other areas, need to be looked at as part of how we build and go forward.

As we end this term I want to raise a note of concern. There are very worrying events happening around the world. We are seeing in Hong Kong a push-back against democratic rights. In terms of rule of law, we are seeing people being picked up in unmarked vehicles in the United States. In Poland, we have seen a decision to pull away from an international convention in terms of domestic violence. We saw that happen in Russia previously, which led to very dangerous laws that affected women's health and rights. It is a reminder of the reason the European Union needs to ratify the Istanbul convention and produce directives that ensure each individual woman and child in Poland has recourse to that law, if not their own country's law. It is notable that President Duda did that in Poland with a 1% majority. It was a winner-takes-all attitude to politics. That is a dangerous attitude to politics.

In Ireland, where we have valued the diversity of political opinion, we need to be extremely cautious of anything that moves us even one inch towards the idea of Government without Parliament or the idea of winner-takes-all politics. At different points in our lives all of us here might be in government, although I may never be in government, or in opposition. We have to respect each other going into the Civil War period of commemorations. Diversity of voices is crucial. The decision to roll back to Civil War-era, 1920s politics in terms of who gets to speak in the Dáil Chamber was a regressive step and one we should all be concerned about. It is very important that in this House we endeavour to keep that constructive form of politics moving forward. I urge that on everybody, not as a point of division but as a point of unity so that we can move forward and serve the people of Ireland better.