Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 34:

In page 9, line 33, to delete “, in the Minister’s opinion,”.

We believe this wording is a get-out clause and nothing more. Professor John Sweeney from Maynooth University said that this Bill is peppered with weasel words and this is a particularly good example of that. The part of the Bill that this amendment seeks to change reads:

(3) The roadmap of actions referred to in subsection (2)(b) shall— (a) specify measures that, in the Minister’s opinion, will be required for the first budget period ...

This is a get-out clause and nothing more. The issue at stake here is accountability. While I am sure the current Minister fully intends to specify the measures required for the budget period, we cannot be sure that any future government will do the same. We need to tighten up the language in order that any Minister in the office will abide by the provisions of the Bill and take the necessary action to reduce emissions. As it stands, this is far from guaranteed because of a litany of weasel words. I do not need to speak to amendments Nos. 36 and 38 because they seek to remove the same language.