Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the previous speaker. There is no legal, moral or justifiable reason for failing to enact the occupied territories Bill. It is a basic first step of compliance with international law. I am very proud to be a co-sponsor of the Bill, which was introduced by my CEG colleague, Senator Frances Black. The delays are damning. The arms embargo Bill is another Bill that should be enacted. It was brought forward last spring by the CEG group and we were assured by Government that we had nothing to worry about and that there was nothing to see in the context of arms passing through Ireland because the Government chose not to inspect or check if there is anything to see. Others have checked and now we know there are arms. We discussed the appalling death we have seen in Lebanon and Gaza. We cannot know but there is every chance that the weapons that killed those women, children and all those people, may have passed through Ireland with silent complicity and the turning of a blind eye. There has been a failure to use the existing powers to start inspecting aeroplanes and an intentional blocking of the arms embargo Bill in the same way the Government has blocked the occupied territories Bill for six years.

We also should not have any deniability in some of the provisions being guillotined today in respect of the Planning and Development Bill. A brave individual former TD who was a Fine Gael backbencher, Tony McLoughlin, brought forward legislation to ban fracking. Everyone spoke about how terrible and awful fracking is, which t is. However, the same parties will now push through legislation to facilitate fracking around the world, with Ireland acting as a hub for liquefied natural gas. This is a priority development, which will bypass local authorities and go straight to the commission. This is not just about the storage or importation by the way; it will include the liquefying and all the filthy processes that not just damage our limited space in terms of climate emissions, but also the local environments in which these actions take place. That is in the Bill that is being guillotined. The sections dealing with that in that Bill are intentionally not being debated.

Alongside this, and possibly even worse, many provisions in the Bill completely trample on the Aarhus Convention. When we say that, it sounds like it is an EU convention and it will be clear. This convention concerns the public and the public's right to participate. It is about the public's right to justice. I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business to state that the discussion on that Planning and Development Bill should be adjourned-----