MINISTER FOR THE Environment Alan Kelly was not impressed at the low turnout in the Dáil chamber for today’s discussion on climate change.
Kelly said he was effectively speaking to himself as there was just one member of the Fine Gael party present – TD for Offaly Marcella Corcoran Kennedy.
Members of Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, People Before Profit-Anti Austerity Alliance and independents were present.
Kelly openly scoffed at the dismal turnout, contending that Fine Gael members had never paid much attention to the issue while his party was in coalition with them.
Indeed it was my experience that over the course of the climate change bill, Fine Gael had to be dragged into the process reluctantly and did not take the principal of climate justice seriously.
However, his ire wasn’t just aimed at his former political allies.
“But at least they did something, Fianna Fáil’s overall game is power, with absolutely no responsibility,” he continued in off-the-cuff remarks ahead of his planned speech.
Not known for mincing his words on any topic, the Tipperary deputy also lambasted the two biggest parties of their government formation deal, stating:
How this document took 70 days to write is incredible and astonishing. That’s 10 days per page!
A third level college was the right location for these talks, because the ‘Trinity Treaty’ is the greatest example of student politics at its worst.
I regret to see that we are not witnessing the dawning of a new day of politics, but sure maybe pints with the people are more important than the world’s poorest to Fianna Fáil.
This is not the first time the minister has hit out at the party Labour was in coalition with. Last week, he lashed out at Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over the proposed deal of suspending water charges.
At the Oireachtas Homeless and Housing Committee, he said he wanted to be more bold and ambitious in solving the housing issues but that he wasn’t allowed.
During his prepared statement, Kelly went on to say climate change can only be tackled with the “right political leadership”.
I regret to say that I have not seen this addressed in the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael ‘Trinity Agreement’ to date. If Fine Gael are serious about helping the poorest of the poor in the world and in building a climate resilient, low-carbon economy, then I expect that climate commitments will feature in the future programme for government … leadership has been absent in the government discussions to date. If we are serious about a low-carbon future, the Trinity Treaty isn’t much of a start.
Kerry’s Danny Healy-Rae took the opportunity at today’s Dáil debate to to deny climate change existed.
“God above is in charge of the weather and we here can’t do anything about it.”
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