Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ryan. When the Minister of State and I were in school, we learned all about the Gulf Stream and the importance of the flows in the Atlantic. I am very alarmed by recent reports from Utrecht University on one of the longest studies of the impact of climate change on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation current and the fear that it is going to collapse. The worry is not that it is going to collapse in the next three to five years but that it could collapse some time in the next century. This requires a global response in terms of measures to address climate change but it is also critical for this State to start to prepare for the possibility of something like this happening. The reality is that if this current collapses, we are going to see temperatures in Ireland dropping. Various scientists have come up with different figures but we could find that Ireland is five, ten or even 15 degrees colder. This would certainly have very serious and significant impacts on agriculture and food production, and if we see sea levels rise by up to a metre, that will be very significant for our coastal communities in particular.

I want to know that the State is preparing for this possibility and that it is something we are thinking about. We know that, because of global warming, a lot of the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic are melting and this is having a profound effect on the oceans. It is reducing the salinity and density of surface water in the North Atlantic and that will have serious implications for Ireland. I appreciate this may not be something that will happen in our lifetime but it is something we need to think about. In the context of potentially dramatic change, we need to think about the Irish climate suddenly becoming very like the Icelandic climate. When we start to think about the implications of that, we realise they are profound. This could be really transformative and, as a State, we have to do everything we can to try to combat it. At the same time, we also need to make sure we are prepared for this if it does happen. Ireland is one of the most vulnerable countries, given our location, if something like this happens. I raise this issue today on foot of the recently published study by Utrecht University to determine whether there is any level of preparedness on the part of State for the possibility of this happening.