Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I feel passionately about this, as a member of the Committee on Environment and Climate Action. We looked in detail at the carbon budgets and we had members of environmental organisations in as well. Fundamentally, as a committee, we recommended that the two Houses pass the carbon budgets. That is my position and that has always been my position. There may have been one Senator and one Deputy who did not take that position. However, it was the opinion of the majority of the committee that we pass them.

As Senator Garvey said, we cannot keep saying that we need more action when, at the end of the day, what we need is urgent action. What the IPCC report laid out is that, by 2100, we are reaching 3.2°C above pre-industrial levels. That needs to be a shockwave that is sent across these two Chambers. I implore people to ensure we have these targets. It is not the end, by any means. In previous Governments, we did not meet our targets because we did not have that legislative basis and we did not have the climate action plan that we now have. At this point, we need the targets and then we need the sectoral targets. That is where the majority of the consultation must happen.

As the Minister of State outlined, there has been significant consultation to get us to this point. I know, from the local authorities, how difficult it is even at a local level to get some of these actions happening. People have to be held to account. They have to have their feet held to the fire and that is what these targets do.