Roderic O'Gorman
Dublin West · Green Party · Ireland
“These are men and women who served their working lives within the British civil service system but who, following unification, would be drawing their pensions in a united Ireland. The question of the funding of that will be extremely significant in any talks following a "Yes" vote on both parts of the island.”
“Some 100 extra staff have been hired to the public domain team to tackle waste and dumping and our councillors will continue to fight for a cleaner and greener Dublin.”
“These challenges are magnified by the continued failure of the current political institutions in Northern Ireland to operate for the best interests of the people rather than achieving best political advantage for the parties.”
“In the Dublin Central area, an average of 50 tonnes per month of illegally dumped waste is being removed by the council. It is a huge amount of waste, and this is more than is collected in an entire year from whole counties elsewhere in the country. Our current model of waste management is a direct contributor to this.”
“This means that in many areas, bags are the notional solution but these cause issues with seagulls or foxes or are intermingled with illegally dumped bags. The net result is our footpaths are strewn with waste. Dublin City Council recently rolled out a system of waste compactors in the core areas of the city centre.”
“The solution is to rationalise the current system, put local authorities back at the centre of waste management processes and use this to get a better handle on pricing and illegal dumping through contracts that are right for each specific area, instead of the one-size-fits-all model we have at the moment that is not actually working anyw…”
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“We are a year into the term of Government. I ask the Minister of State to urge the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, who I know is interested in this area, and the officials to move rapidly on this because there are a lot of parents and a lot of children whose right to have their legal relationship with their parents recognised is entirely dependent on this work being done.”
“I recall that former Senator Seery Kearney was very involved as well. It is important that open dialogue continues. It is a dialogue, and I understand that the answer cannot always be "Yes", but at least that engagement is really important. There is maybe a concern that the engagement has not been as frequent. As this legislation advances, it would be useful to help tease out and maybe help officials in the Minister of State’s Department understand the real-world implications of some of the decisions that are being made on paper without a full understanding. I thank the Minister of State for her contribution. I recognise the very significant piece of work Deputy Rice and his committee have done. I really urge that this legislation needs to move quickly. We do not really even have proper heads of Bill.”
“Is it an appropriate provision to have in legislation in 2025-2026? I had the opportunity as a Minister in the previous Government and now as a backbencher to meet with many of the organisations and parents - current parents and intending parents - who will benefit from this legislation and whose children will benefit from this legislation in terms of the relationship between parent and child. The de facto relationship will become a legal relationship as well. They are those children's parents, undoubtedly, but that law does not recognise it. It is really important that the Minister of State's Department and the Department of justice continue to engage with them. I attended a number of meetings in the previous Oireachtas with the then Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee.”
“I ask the Department to look at that closely. I refer to the issue of excluding people with blood conditions from being able to use surrogacy. One might on the face of it think there is a health issue for the child, but where those conditions can be addressed through various treatments it risks enhancing the discriminations and worries and stigmas that are out there against certain conditions. If an intending parent has HIV, for example, as the legislation is currently drafted, from my reading, both parents are punished in terms of not being able to use this legislation, particularly where there are medical approaches that can address that and ensure that a child conceived there will not have that medical condition or, indeed, other medical conditions. Again, I ask the Department whether that is necessary at this stage.”
“A right to allow the judge, even in situations where maybe not every provision of the Act has been made, but where a judge can recognise that it is in the best interests of the child in this particular case to allow parentage and grant a parentage order should be provided for in this legislation. It can be circumscribed, but we as a country back in 2013 passed the referendum to put the best interests of the child in our Constitution. That same principle should be recognised in this legislation, not as an opportunity to allow people to wilfully ignore the important rules and importance safeguards around surrogacy but to allow for those occasional situations where something went wrong, or one provision maybe could not be reached but it was not the parents' fault. We should mot penalise that child.”
“It is important that the rules are strict and the legislation, or what we are told the legislation will look like, does set out detailed rules for that. However, there are circumstances where a mistake or an error that is outside the control of the intended parents may take place and for the recognition of parents' rights to be refused in absolutely every situation due to a fault that was outside of the parents' control and which then has the impact that the child they have conceived or the child they now have will not have his or her relationship with those parents recognised in law. That is a huge punishment, not for the wrongdoer in those cases but for the parents or, indeed, for that child.”
“I ask that in the new year, the Minister of State maybe urges her officials and her colleague, the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan in the Department of justice, to move rapidly ahead with that because it can be done, and it will help people. In terms of the report, there were just one or two points I want to focus on in a little bit of detail. That question of judicial discretion to always apply what is in the best interests of the child in a particular case before the judge should be reconsidered by the Department of Health. I absolutely understand that the rules on surrogacy need to be strict. There is a very important reason. These are fundamental decisions about the parentage of children.”
“It was the right call to make at the time, but it is disappointing that significant sections of that Act still have not been commenced. There are parts of that existing Act that could be commenced that do not require this new Bill. I am glad the Minister referenced section 232. That is something I have been asking the Minister for Health about for a considerable period of time. I know it is not just sitting within the Department of Health. There are issues to do with the rules of the District Court and Circuit Court and issues to do with the Department as well. However, addressing that could provide relief for a body of people who need its provisions.”
“When we do not have those heads, that absence is certainly noted. We are, therefore, speaking in theory on quite a lot of the points we are making tonight. It is important to briefly recall how we have got to the particular situation now. I want to recognise the work the previous Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, did in advancing the first Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, worked closely when she was in the Department of justice. I had some involvement in terms of the Department of children and equality. A call was made in mid-2024 to get that Act passed because, although it was recognised there were some gaps or new issues had come up that did need to be addressed, nevertheless that Act could provide legal protection for large numbers of families and parents. I note two things.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her comments and for being here tonight to address this important matter. I recognise the work that Deputy Rice and the committee have done in bringing forward this report. It is irregular to be discussing a PLS report on legislation that does not yet exist. I recognise having tonight's debate allows us to hone in on a number of issues of key concern. It is far more difficult to do that when one does not see a list of heads of Bill, which is what pre-legislative scrutiny is about. It is to give the TDs and Senators on the committee, outside interest groups and, indeed, the Minister and the civil servants involved with its drafting the opportunity to go into some detail on the heads of Bill and discuss what is there, what is missing and how it can be improved.”
“When it comes to protecting children, we need to act now, not delay, adopt a precautionary principle approach and ensure that we can protect young people from any potential health risks and harms that come from tobacco pouches. When we even think of what they are composed of, we have to strongly suspect that there are going to be long-term health risks from them. I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to speak on this. I look forward to supporting this Bill, but it is important that she answers those questions about why the other important elements that Cabinet had previously given approval to - elements that would have improved environmental health and public health - have been left out. If they are not being included in this Bill, when will the Minister of State bring them forward?”
“Tobacco pouches are about to become a major public health issue. Let us not wait like we did with vapes. Let us act quickly and bring forward legislation based on science. That requires the Department undertaking some serious research. The precautionary principle needs to apply here. We know for 40, 50 or 60 years that the tobacco industry lied about the impact of cigarettes. That is a proven statement. We know that it took us too long to understand the impact of vapes, particularly on young people. Let us not allow that delay to take place when it comes to tobacco pouches. Let us take a precautionary approach. Let us limit their sales at least away from those under 18. Adults, of course, can make choices of their own.”
“A number of Deputies have raised tobacco pouches and how they have become incredibly prevalent in terms of consumption, and how they are being advertised very widely in a wide range of social situations. The tobacco industry seems to have moved another step forward. It has almost gotten past vapes before the legislation has caught up. I urge the Minister of State and the Government to look at this point. We all recognise that we did not legislate in time for vapes. Vapes were allowed to take hold. They were allowed be making the sales of 50 million units every year in Ireland. They were earning €400 million in income for their producers without a proper regulatory framework being put in place. We are only catching up on part of that right now in the Bill. Let us not make that same mistake again. We have the opportunity.”
“On a broader point, in 2023 legislation was passed to prevent the sale of vapes to children and to only permit the sale of vapes through licensed retailers in the same way tobacco retailers are licensed. We all know that Bill is not being fully followed. It is clear that vapes are still being sold in unlicensed premises such as mobile phone shops, and they are being sold to children. I am curious as to why a retail licensing system under the 2023 legislation has not been set up yet. Why is it still possible that vapes are being sold to children? If legislation that has been on the books for more than two years is not being fully enforced, I wonder how the Minister of State can be confident that the valuable new rules that she is looking to bring through in this legislation will be enforced, which is a worry.”
“When a member state is looking to put a significant restriction on a product freely in circulation across member states, there has to be a notification process. Have the Government started the notification process or is it waiting for this Bill to pass before it does so? If the Minister is taking that approach, I urge her to reconsider and to start the recognition and regulation process now, because the earlier we start the better. If we do the two processes - the consideration of the Bill in this House and in the other House, and the engagement with the European authorities - at the same time, that will allow us to enjoy the important health and environmental benefits from this legislation at an earlier time.”
“Why has the Bill shrunk so dramatically in that time period? That is not really clear from what has been presented to us today. What is the reason for that delay and why are two Bills necessary to deal with the issues given that when the Cabinet gave approval to the measures in September last year they were very easily comprehended within a single Bill? The work was done back then. The heads of the Bill were ready to go. While I welcome this Bill, and will support it, how is it that the really valuable work on environmental health and public health measures that had already received Cabinet approval have been left on the long finger? One or two others Deputies asked this question, which I ask the Minister of State to address in her conclusions. I refer to engagement with the EU on technical regulation information systems notifications.”
“When my former Green Party colleague Ossian Smyth was a Minister of State, he led the charge on that environmental point in the previous Government. He worked very closely with the former Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to develop legislation that was comprehensive on the issue of vaping. That Bill sought to ban disposable vapes, limit vape flavours to tobacco, as other countries are now doing, and ban point-of-sale display and advertising of vape products in shops other than in vape shops. That was comprehensive legislation and Cabinet approval was sought and achieved for it in September 2024. Over a year later I am curious as to why it has taken so long for this legislation to appear, given there had been approval for the heads of the Bill and for it to come to the House for a Second Stage debate.”
“These are clearly designed to be attractive to children and young people, to get them consuming them and to put them at risk of addiction to these unhealthy but also costly products. Almost every European country, including Ireland, has a form of basic regulation with respect to vapes and e-cigarettes, but the trend recently has been not only to tighten the level of restrictions and to tighten sales, but also to tighten the flavourings used in vapes. That is the case in Belgium, France and in Germany. The UK has gone even further and has introduced a ban on disposable vapes in their entirety. While the public health element is foremost in our minds in this Bill and in the role of the Minister of State, public health is not the only issue in that there is an environmental impact as well, in particular when it comes to disposable vapes.”
“I am sure the Minister of State has often heard the Taoiseach describe vapes as the revenge of the tobacco industry. I fully agree with him on that particular point. It looks like around 50 million vapes will be sold in Ireland this year with a value of about €400 million. The industry has grown from nothing in a very sudden and dramatic fashion. Almost all the disposable vapes that are consumed in Ireland come from China. Their sale is banned among teenagers in China, but they are exported here where they are freely consumed. Vape companies are making huge profits from making nicotine addicts. The products are clearly marketed at children. They have flavours like bubblegum, cotton candy and marshmallow.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to present this important legislation. I welcome this valuable Bill although, as I will speak to in a moment, the scope of it is far too narrow. I would like to put a few questions to the Minister of State on that and she might be able to address them in her wrap-up. As a starting point, we cannot be in any doubt that when we consider the prevalence of vaping and the growth in its use, particularly among young people, greater regulation is needed from a public health perspective. To put it very simply, products containing nicotine are addictive and harmful. When we see such a huge uptake in vaping, it must be treated as a public health issue. It should not be viewed, as some might advocate, as somehow better because vapes do not contain the degree of potency of ordinary cigarettes.”
“Today, we have another opportunity to make real change. We have another opportunity to outlaw a practice that is long past the time of needing to be outlawed in this country. Ireland's laws have banned cruel practices of killing animals in the past in a range of areas and it is time we took this opportunity today. I urge Deputies to support this legislation.”
“It bans trail hunting. Okay, I will step back from that point because I think it is important there is at least one drag hunt in Ireland. It is not my thing but as long as a fox is not being killed I am not particularly concerned about that. It is important we keep the focus here on the central issue which is using legislation to ban the killing of foxes - the killing of animals for pleasure. We have had the opportunity on three occasions in this House over the past five weeks to discuss issues of animal welfare. They were issues to do with greyhounds and dog breeding and today it is fox hunting. Deputy Coppinger has already pointed out that during the debate on the puppy farming Bill last week, there was real passion among Deputies. Deputies spoke with real meaning about what their dogs and their pets meant to them.”
“It is not something I might like personally but I recognise it is a reality of farming in our country. However, that is not what we are discussing today. We are discussing the organised pursuit and killing, by mauling to death by dogs, of a small animal for the enjoyment of a group of people who see this as a social event. In the same way Irish law has outlawed the killing of dogs in dog fighting for fun, or the baiting of bulls, bears and badgers for fun over its history, I believe it is now important for us to take that step to ban the killing of foxes for fun. I would like to raise one slight point of difference with Deputy Coppinger on the Bill. Her Bill seeks to outlaw drag hunting and she rightfully points out that in England, drag hunting-----”
“I have little doubt that during the course of the debate this morning, some of those opposing Deputy Coppinger's Bill will try to reduce this to another front in the culture wars. As I said last week, when anyone tries to do something on the issue of animal welfare, the battle is immense. Those of us who are advocating for change are accused of trying to destroy country life, of being out of touch and of being elite. Let me be very clear about what I say so others cannot misrepresent me. I believe it is wrong to kill animals for fun, for pleasure, and that is what fox hunting ultimately is about. It is the killing of an animal in a social setting for human enjoyment. I recognise farmers have to take measures to protect sheep and poultry. Sometimes foxes will be shot.”
“In spite of the immovable political positions adopted by some of the largest parties in this House, it is absolutely not something that is supported by the majority of people in Ireland, in either rural or urban Ireland. Last week, speaking on Deputy Whitmore's Bill on puppy farming I made the same point. People in every part of our country, when they hear about how animals can be treated legally in this country, are overwhelmingly in favour of eliminating and banning these most heinous and most cruel practices. We are left wondering, why those parties that claim to have the broadest support seem to be so entrenched and so immovable, when even their own constituents are asking for change.”
“I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing forward this important legislation today, which I and the Green Party will be strongly supporting. Along with the Bill on dog breeding last week, it is a welcome opportunity for this House to focus on some of the more extreme and, frankly, indefensible practices which animals in this country are subject to. I want to speak very directly about this. There is simply no justifiable reason for this State to permit the hunting and killing of foxes, with dogs. It is not a reasonable method to control the fox population. It is not, as some have argued, a means of protecting biodiversity, and it is not an intrinsic part of rural life in Ireland.”
“Last June, parties across this House welcomed the show of support for freedom of expression by hundreds of thousands of Hungarians when they marched in the Budapest Pride parade, which that country's government had tried to ban. Now we see the Hungarian Government initiating prosecutions against the Green mayor of Budapest and the Pride organisers in another Hungarian city. Could the Government find time this week for statements on this matter and could the Minister for foreign affairs raise it with her counterpart in Hungary?”
“I am happy to engage with this proposal as it goes forward but that will not work unless people are protected. It is important that, as well as advancing this proposal, the Government should look to take those wider steps focusing on the algorithms and should commit today to doing so.”
“They openly work to undermine our democratic foundations and their sales racket has been used by demagogues and charlatans to capture an entire political process. It is easy to despair but I do not think we have the luxury of ignoring this any more. As a small EU state with significant big tech companies here, we should be taking a lead role in doing everything we can at European Council level to make sure that the digital world respects individual rights and is truly free from mass subversion. This starts at home and the step that I have continually called for: we should give Coimisiún na Meán the power to require all platforms to ensure that those recommender algorithms are set to a default "off" setting. I recognise that the Government is taking what it sees as the best step to protect children.”
“The digital space should be truly open, a free exchange of ideas, of information and of commerce where the individual is protected. Today, however, that entire business model is based on the sale and resale of personal data and the sophisticated algorithms that are hyper-targeted. They target the individual to drive up interaction, drive up attention and drive up sales. Surely, we now see that this has poisoned discourse in our democracy. It has become a doom-loop of prioritising the most extreme and most fringe views that are completely unmoored from fact, from reason and from any sense of perspective. Today, the people who profit from this system have become the most powerful people in the world.”
“As the Australian law comes into effect today, we are at a consequential time for the right of national governments to set digital policy. Whether that law succeeds remains to be seen, but we are at a critical junction right now where states, and in Ireland's case states along with the EU, must set policy in the national interest. Protecting children from hate and exploitation is a really good place to start and I support efforts to do so. However, a blanket ban in the long term may be hard to maintain. It is a blunt instrument and it is permeable. Most importantly, it by no means captures the range of action that is urgently needed in respect of the absolute free-for-all of hatred, violence and extreme speech that pervades some platforms totally unchecked.”
“People should be in no doubt about the difficulty with which legislating to improve the lot of animals is resisted politically in this country. Again, what always amazes me is that opposition to change is coming from tiny, unrepresentative interest groups. Although they are unrepresentative, they are able to generate such noise that the larger parties bend to their will every single time. It is essential that this Bill, or an identical version from the Government, be passed during the lifetime of this Dáil. I do not accept the justification for a 12-month delay, and I will oppose that delay tonight, but in 12 months' time when the Bill does advance, the Green Party and I look forward to supporting Deputy Whitmore in advancing it and seeing it passed.”
“People in Ireland are shocked to hear about some of the practices that take place on animals in our own country. It has always been my experience that the vast majority of Irish people, rural and urban alike, want a humane regulatory system in place that seeks to put the welfare of animals at its heart but every time it comes to actually making even a small change, the political fight is entrenched. It is vitriolic. Those proposing changes are attacked and it is escalated into some sort of perverse city versus country culture war. That is done as a very deliberate tactic. I remember in 2010 when the Green Party introduced the puppy farming regulation Bill and a ban on stag hunting, the money and effort that were put into AstroTurfing a lobby was absolutely incredible.”
“Surgical artificial insemination is an issue that is long past time for action. The Veterinary Council of Ireland has already updated its code of practice to include a prohibition on canine surgical artificial insemination across all breeds, including greyhounds. It is banned in the UK and New Zealand. It is an absolutely unnecessary procedure that inflicts significant pain and creates a risk of infection to the dog to simply maximise litters and ultimately profit. It must be banned by statute and that ban must be enforced. Any breaches must carry strict penalties and that ban must include greyhounds as well. Of course, what has always been remarkable to me is that when it comes to legislating for animal welfare in Ireland, it is the people who are firmly on the side of change.”
“Fifteen years on from that law, the measures being proposed in the Bill today are absolutely necessary to ensure we have an effective, humane regulatory system in place where dog breeding is taking place. In particular, I welcome the proposed measures to regulate breeding practices that would address some of the physically extreme practices that can cause significant suffering for dogs, like a minimum age for breeding, like a maximum number of litters per year, like an annual breeding limit and a minimum age for separation. Perhaps most critically, it looks to outlaw the horrendous practice of surgical artificial insemination. I know this was something Deputy Quaide focused on in his contribution and it is an issue on which I have been raising parliamentary questions in recent months.”
“Commercial-scale dog breeding is not something I will pretend to have any regard for even with regulation in place. It is an industry that prioritises profit over welfare where profit is the product of how efficiently and at how large a scale litters of puppies can be bred and born. That is why Deputy Whitmore’s Bill is so welcome. It seeks to amend a piece of legislation that was introduced by my former colleague, John Gormley, when he was Minister in 2010, which was the first measure to attempt to regulate the factory-like breeding of dogs in Ireland. At that time, that particular law was strongly supported by animal welfare groups and by veterinary campaigners.”
“It is really important that we be clear about the central question we are debating here and will vote on tonight. This is a law that seeks to reduce cruelty to dogs. It is important for the hundreds of thousands of dog owners and lovers in this country who know the innate sense of injustice and fury when they see or hear of a dog being mistreated. I have heard that sense from many of the Deputies who have contributed already today but it is important for those dog lovers to know that this Bill will be delayed tonight for 12 months. Law that would lessen cruelty to dogs in this country will be kicked down the road for a year. I want to thank Deputy Whitmore for bringing forward this important Bill and we in the Green Party will support it.”
“I understand this is not the Minister of State’s Department, but I ask that he reflect back to the Department of education the absolute urgency of having a firm date for when this meeting can take place so that these three schools can move past the stage 2a process and the children in them can have a hope of seeing the rebuilding during their time in them.”
“Let us remember - the Minister of State read it out just now - that the initial proposal, even before 2023, was for an expansion and refurbishment of prefabricated buildings. The Department itself, however, identified that the condition of all these school buildings was so poor that a complete demolition and rebuild of all three schools was needed. The Department identified that, yet we see this delayed process taking place. There was a commitment for a meeting prior to Christmas. That meeting was cancelled and now there is no firm date for when it is going to take place.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the update, but I am disappointed that he, or the Department of Education and Youth, is not in a position to give a clear date for when the schools' design team will meet the Department to, first, discuss the latest addendum report submitted by the schools and, second, give them permission to move past stage 2a. In the speech the Minister of State read, we see that the initial stage 1 report was submitted in April 2023 and it was followed by a stage 2a submission report in January 2024 and a workshop in March 2024, and then we jump to another workshop in May 2025. My concern is that this is not progressing with the degree of haste the situation in these schools requires.”
“John Bosco Senior Boys School and Mary, Help of Christians Girls National School, need a firm date as early as possible from the Department on which to meet the design team, agree the addendum report and let these schools progress to the next stage. Can the Minister of State give me a firm date for when this meeting will take place?”
“I acknowledge that the Department sought additional detail and amendments through the addendum, but the lack of preparation on the Department's side to review that documentation when it came in raises serious concerns. I know and the school knows that the Department school building team is under real pressure, but it is now more than a year that these schools have not been able to get past stage 2a. The school and its design team are working quickly and efficiently and are keeping the Department up to date on progress at every stage. However, the Department is not replicating that level of engagement. These three schools, St. John Bosco Junior Boys School, St.”
“The situation to date is that the Department requested a stage 2a addendum report from the school's design team, which advised the Department at least four weeks in advance of that report that it would come in on 30 October 2025. Despite having significant notice from the school design team, the Department did not allocate any time or resources to review the documentation when it was received. A meeting had been scheduled by the design team with the Department in anticipation of progressing the review, but again, the Department cancelled the meeting and informed the schools the documentation would now not be examined until after the new year. This is extremely disappointing, particularly given the three schools were explicitly assured that this project would move to the next phase in the first quarter of this year.”
“The Minister of State will be aware that bringing three separate schools together under one project is a challenge, but such is the commitment of the school management teams that they have done it. They have a definitive plan for how the students would move out of sections of the old school, how those sections would be demolished and how the new school would be built across the site over a period. However, there has been a real blockage in the schools getting past the notorious stage 2a of the Department's processes. This was an election issue in the general election this time last year and, as soon as I was re-elected, I asked a parliamentary question of the then Minister in February this year. There was due to be a meeting between the schools and the Department back in March. That was cancelled quite abruptly.”
“I wish to raise the long delays in a rebuild project that three schools in my constituency are facing. They are St. John Bosco Junior Boys School, St. John Bosco Senior Boys School and Mary, Help of Christians Girls National School. These schools are just off the Navan Road in Dublin 7. They serve the communities of Ashtown, Navan Road and such new communities as Pelletstown. They are great schools. I have had the opportunity to visit them. I have met the student council of St. John Bosco school and I had the chance to see just how run-down those old buildings were. They are musty, prefabricated buildings with single-glazed windows and cold classrooms. They are three distinct schools, but they have come together with a vision for an education campus on the site.”
“The Complex is the only multi-disciplinary arts centre in Dublin's north inner city. It combines a performance space, a gallery and 18 artists' studios. It is also about to close. Management of the Complex have been talks with the Government and the city council since 2018 to secure the long-term future of this centre but it has now been served with a notice to quit. The city council passed an emergency motion on the issue and there is due to be a public meeting on the issue on Thursday. As Minister for public expenditure, is Deputy Chambers aware of this issue and will he commit to engage with Dublin City Council and with his colleague, the Minister for Finance, to work on a solution to protect this key cultural space for Dublin city centre?”
“If we work and commit together to a just transition, that not only confronts climate change but ultimately builds a fairer and more just society for all of us in Ireland.”
“The final point I will raise about that report is the importance of faster climate action. At the Belém COP in recent weeks, we saw the huge preponderance of fossil fuel lobbyists who were there and who were able to influence the outcome of that COP to ensure the reference to the transition away from fossil fuels was not actually mentioned in the final text of the Belém declaration. The outcome of that in the medium-to-long-term is going to be more people in Ireland, more people across Europe and the world, having to experience the risk of energy poverty because of their dependence on fossil fuels. I urge the Government to do more. As a country, we must choose courage over delay, we must choose fairness over fear and we must choose the opportunities that exist from this transition over obstruction.”
“I note that, in this most recent report, the commission really focused on the fact that, to date, our approach to the just transition has been piecemeal. It has been too reactive and we have not adopted that all-of-society approach. It recognises that steps have been taken but it also strongly recognises that the communities I spoke of earlier that are most at risk of this transition feel left behind and that not enough has been done for them. The second point it makes is that creating a better Ireland goes hand in hand with a just transition. Climate action at its core is not only about cutting the carbon emissions, but it is also about building a country where people can live secure, dignified and healthy lives. It is about improving things in all senses, for all people.”
“Over the summer, I met the minister for climate action from Vanuatu, Ralph Regenvanu. He was visiting Dublin. Vanuatu is a small Pacific island nation on a range of islands. It has a population of just over 300,000 people. It is hugely at risk to natural disasters. It is hugely at risk to sea-level rise. Its very physical existence as an independent nation that is present is put at risk by climate change and by sea-level rise. For me, hearing from him about what his country is doing was a very real-world, tangible illustration of the existential threat that climate change represents for millions, and ultimately billions, of people living on our planet. A number of Deputies referenced the 2025 report from our current Just Transition Commission of Ireland. I want to focus on three elements of that report.”