Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

When I hear Senator Buttimer state that there are no climate change deniers, I wonder that he does not look more closely at his party and its record over the past three budgets. Senator Lombard stated that he welcomed the seven line Ministers to the House. They have to come here because they are obliged to do so under the relevant legislation. The Government has not honoured the Climate Action Low Carbon Development Act 2015. I do not see a plan. I do not see the Government being accountable for its actions in the past year in the context of climate change. Not one Minister stated whether he or she had set himself or herself a target last year or, if targets were set, whether they had been clearly measured or met. The Government is not honouring the plan.

In 2014, many NGOs and environmental groups spent endless hours drafting the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act. Deputies and Senators put in great amounts of time to develop the legislation. There was an expectation that the Act would be honoured. However, that is not happening today. We have not seen one clear plan or target and we have not seen the Government being accountable for its actions over the past three years. The Government has failed and failed again and that is unacceptable. Ministers who are responsible for ripping out hedgerows have come to the House today and stated that everything is wonderful.It is quite the opposite. I feel extremely angry because I was one of the Deputies who spent hours and hours developing the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 at that time. The principal gain in that Act - over which I fought tooth and nail with Phil Hogan - was that Ministers would be answerable to both Houses. The Ministers have failed. They are not giving a plan or details and they are not taking responsibility for their lack of action. That is despicable.

The only possible gain I now see is the Climate Change Advisory Council. That had to be battled for and fought for. It was not easily won. I am thankful that it was won, because Fine Gael is now ignoring the rest of the Act. It is extremely disappointing to hear Minister after Minister say that everything is wonderful, that they are going to do better, and that although they did not increase carbon taxes they are going to do something else. I am sorry; it is just not good enough. It is not just me who says that it is not good enough. We should be thankful that the Climate Change Advisory Council is independent as the then Minister, Phil Hogan, would have much preferred to appoint his cronies to it, but we stopped him. That council has said that the Government has failed over and over again. It told the Government what needed to be done and explained the reason the carbon tax had to be increased, which is that we need the carrot and the stick.

People in this House are not proposing increased carbon taxes because we want to tax everybody. We want to see a carbon tax put in place so that we can see our housing stock being deeply retrofitted, as is needed. We heard the Minister of State say that we need €50 billion to upgrade our housing stock but his Government will not even introduce a lousy carbon tax to put some money in place to start such retrofitting so that houses can be warm, comfortable and use a reduced amount of energy. It is a total and utter failure.

I do not believe this Government. I have absolutely no faith in it because what was supposed to happen here today was clearly laid out in the Act and the Government has dishonoured that legislation in word and in deed. It is just not good enough. We listen to the experts in the world explain what we need to do. What does Fine Gael say? It says that we might get around to it next year or the year after.

The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, was in the House talking about the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, studies. Maybe he should go back and look at them. Let him go and have a look at what the raise in ocean levels will mean because part of the CFRAM studies explain how water might possibly flow in the back gate of Leinster House, up onto the lawn, and into the House. That is part of the CFRAM studies. That is the risk. The Minister of State should think of the thousands of families that will be made homeless by the flooding. Can we fix everything? No, we cannot. However, we can give leadership. We have so far failed to give that leadership. I include myself in that. Above all, however, I blame the Taoiseach and the Ministers who were in this House today because they have shown no leadership in this regard. There is no leadership with regard to planning or tightening building specifications in respect of energy efficiency. There is no leadership in respect of retrofitting our housing stock.

One Minister talked about the growth of mould cultures in houses. I can bring him to local authority houses in which there is mould growth at the moment. That is occurring as a result of climate change. A Minister boasted in here about MetroLink and BusConnects and yet he is making submissions to himself about BusConnects and why parts of the plan should not be carried out. Is the Government really serious about doing anything? The Taoiseach gets up and says we are lagging behind on climate. He is the Taoiseach; he should show leadership.

I have eight minutes. I know the Leas-Chathaoirleach would prefer if my contribution was shorter, but I will only use my eight minutes.