Communities continue to suffer as Government turns its back on environmental action

Following another week of severe weather in Ireland, the Green Party is calling on the Government to stop their row back on climate action.

Green Party leader, Roderic O’Gorman said:

“Over the last 12 months, this Government has repeatedly turned its back on implementing measures to tackle climate change. This week, we saw the real impact on families and communities when the causes and effects of climate change are ignored.

This Government has raided the Climate and Nature Fund, reversed the 2:1 spend on public transport and delayed publication of the Climate Action Plan. 

Now, Minister Jack Chambers has decided to disband the Climate Unit in his own Department. Could there be any clearer indication of this Government's disinterest in climate action?”

Deputy O’Gorman called on Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers to reverse his decision to disband the climate division of his department:

“Government ministers and the Taoiseach were putting their energy this week into blaming Met Éireann, environmentalists, judicial reviews, and others for their inaction on climate change and the introduction of flooding infrastructure. The Government needs to look to its own failures to plan for the weather and climate challenges of the future, and it can start by re-establishing the Climate Unit in DPER”.

Senator Malcolm Noonan called on the Government to listen to local knowledge and look to nature based solutions to prevent future flooding:

“Rather than blaming others, the Government should be leading. We need storm infrastructure, a Nature Based Solutions plan. We need a fully funded Nature Restoration Plan and a fully resourced NPWS to help deliver it. We need Land Use plans. While many of these communities are waiting on OPW schemes, we could be working with landowners, local authorities and communities to work with nature to help, and in some cases possibly negate, the need for expensive hard engineering projects. Nature is our best line of defence against climate change”.

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