Seanad debates

Friday, 9 July 2021

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages

 

9:30 am

Photo of Róisín GarveyRóisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Is deas an rud an tAire a fheiceáil i gcomhair an lae fhada seo, lá stairiúil freisin, le cúnamh Dé.I thank Senator Lombard for his work on the amendment. It is really important that we are very clear about the process. There was a Citizens' Assembly and a climate committee that went on for ages. I found it interesting that the people who were shouting the most about the poor farmers were the ones who turned up least at the negotiations and at the climate committees. We have to be very careful how we spin this one out. To me, the environmentalists and the farmers are all the same. I say that as someone who lives on a farm. We get the climate the most. We are on the same side. There is a kind of polarisation that has been happening. Maybe the big farming lobby groups or certain journalists are responsible for that. I meet the local IFA regularly and the Minister meets the senior IFA regularly. It is not as if the farmers I know have been left out.

It is a struggle to see how we are going to deal with climate change, which is not of our creation. We have been aware of it for many years. That is why I feel that today is historic. This climate Bill had to happen. It is important that we stop with the polarisation and all work together for the greater good. No one cares as much about the farmers as custodians of the land as the Green Party, which is why we recognise the need to look at this and do it properly. There must be a just transition where we see money and employment in rural Ireland.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.