Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Senator O'Loughlin, three minutes each.

The former President Mary Robinson is most welcome to the Chamber. It is fantastic to have a fellow Mayo woman address us today. I am proud as a Senator to have an opportunity to respond to her address in a Chamber where she once served before going on to become Ireland's first female President. We often hear the phrase "you cannot be what you cannot see". By taking up that most prestigious role, President of our great country, she became an invaluable role model for young women and girls across Ireland. I thank her for that.

One of her most famous quotes has always resonated strongly with me and it is a very powerful line. She said "I was elected ... by the women of Ireland ... who instead of rocking the cradle rocked the system". She did just that and continues to do that today as she takes her fight to addressing climate change and protecting nature not only to Ireland but around the world. Addressing climate change can often feel hopeless. One of the most important things we must do as leaders in our communities and countries is give people hope. When Mrs. Robinson says we have six years until we reach a tipping point, we must acknowledge, as she has, that we will not meet the climate emissions reductions targets we set by 2030. Those figures are stark, yet we see a hyper focus on individual actions and big industry and the oil companies - Mrs. Robinson referred to them as the fossil fuel lobby - are left to continue on as always. It is business as usual. How can we realistically tackle climate change if we do not tackle the big polluters, the fossil fuel industry?

Mrs. Robinson also touched on migration, a topic we have discussed at length in this Chamber and outside its doors. She said that almost 1 billion people could be migrating by 2050. Why does this not move governments, not only in Ireland but across the European Union, to do more? We have seen the pressure migration is putting on systems and countries across the world, yet we do not intend to clamp down strongly on the big polluters and we are facing down the barrel of mass migration because of climate change. The elephant in the room is energy production. How do we power our industries, businesses and farms and how do we fuel our homes? We need to invest heavily in renewables and advance the technologies we have. We need to harness the power of offshore wind. The second best wind corridor in the world is sitting off the west coast of Ireland, yet we have not even moved to start mapping our coastline. Scotland finished mapping its coastline three years ago. Our semi-State company, ESB Networks, is investing in an offshore floating project in the UK, not in Ireland. Why is that? We also have a massive fund in the REPowerEU platform at a European level that we can tap into but we are not doing that, whereas France is. We need to start talking about green opportunities and give hope.

Mrs. Robinson mentioned the recent elections. What people are saying to me is that they are shouldering an unfair burden. I get asked what Ireland can do when China and the US, the big polluters, are doing so little. That is a job for national leaders to address. People are being asked to make major changes regarding fuel in their homes and transport and say they do not have viable alternatives. That is a matter for the national Government.

We need to give hope to people, but we need to tackle the real questions people are asking us on the doors if we want to bring them with us.