The “first and top priority” of the Green Party for their remaining weeks in government is pushing through a climate change bill, according to Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan.
Minister Ryan has promised that the climate change Bill would be published before the Greens left government buildings.
“This is probably our first and top priority. It is the priority because it will effect future generations,” Minister Ryan said.
He was speaking at the Earth Talks event last Thursday evening, November 25, in the Science Gallery in Trinity College. Minister Ryan made the commitment on a climate change Bill when questioned from the floor by Friends of the Earth's Molly Walsh.
The Minister said that the Greens aspired to get a climate change law onto the statute books because “we hope to leave it as our legacy.”
He added that he was confident that Fianna Fáil backbenchers would support the Bill.
Chairman of the event, RTÉ broadcaster John Bowman, pressed Minister Ryan on the issue of asking the Opposition parties to support the Bill in a “free vote” in the Dáil. The Opposition traditionally vote against all government proposals.
But the Minister said he was satisfied that the party whip could keep Fianna Fáil backbenchers in check.
“It is always a free vote in the Dáil,” he said – which got a big laugh from the audience.
“I suspect we will get it through,” he added.
Minister Ryan concluded his contribution to the debate – which was about the media’s attitude to environmentalism – by saying that writer John Moriarty was his hero because he communicated the “Irish mystic connection about how the earth talks and we need to listen.”
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