Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that two of three previous speakers spoke about climate and environmental matters. It shows the importance of these matters to the House. It is something we can forget about but which we must put on the agenda, in some shape or form, every day. I would look for a way to include it in our business every week in the future.

Last night, I attended a public meeting at which I was one of three panellists, along with Professor John Sweeney and Ms Sadhbh O'Neill. We were discussing the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020. As Senator Byrne quite rightly said, this is not just a matter for the Joint Committee on Climate Action. Five Members of this House, Senators McGahon, Dooley, Higgins, Boylan and I, are members of that committee, in addition to the Deputies and the Chair, Deputy Leddin. At the moment, we are meeting for two to three hours every single day. We are now in the eighth week of our scrutiny of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020 so if I have been missing from the Chamber more than usual, it is because of the amount of work we are doing. All of these meetings are being held in private session but this work shows the commitment of the Government in respect of climate action. We need to bring the debate out into the public so that everyone will know that this work is critical to us and that the reason it took so long to agree the programme for Government was that we hammered out the detail. This Bill was a key part of that.

It is now for us to deliver. I hope the Bill will come to the Seanad first and that we will have proper debates on it but I also believe we need a proper opportunity to debate it in the House. I thank Senator Byrne for raising the matter today because it is a good opportunity for us to deal with the issues facing our planet and our children. We talk about how our children are affected by Covid. This is a crucial issue for our children. We are looking down the barrel of an existential crisis. According to the World Meteorological Organization, this is set to be one of the three hottest years on record. We have not been doing what we should. We are seeing record levels of deforestation in Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro, which raises the issue of international climate justice. It is a great opportunity for us all to debate the issue. I thank the Senators and the Leader.