The publication today of the Third Report and Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly – ‘How The State Can Make Ireland A Leader In Tackling Climate Change’ [1] is warmly welcomed by An Taisce. We commend the Hon. Mary Laffoy for her skilled and even-handed chairing of the Assembly, which An Taisce attended last November as observers.
Having been assigned the task by the Houses of the Oireachtas of examining Ireland’s response to climate change and after careful deliberation guided by a broad panel of experts, the Assembly agreed a series of 13 strong and unequivocal Recommendations. In most cases, these were overwhelmingly endorsed.
The clear message from the Citizens’ Assembly is that, when clearly informed about climate risk and climate action, the Irish public is deeply concerned at the huge risks to our shared future posed by climate change, and believes the government response to date to have been wholly inadequate. The Assembly’s Recommendations go light years beyond any equivalent political response from any of the main parties to date.
The Hon. Mary Laffoy has today laid the Assembly’s Report & Recommendations before both Houses of the Oireachtas. The gauntlet has been thrown down by the citizens of Ireland, via the Assembly, and the demand is for urgent, serious and sustained action right across all sectors of Irish society and our economy to tackle climate change.
John Gibbons, Spokesperson for An Taisce’s Climate Change Committee stated “An Taisce calls on our politicians to step up and rise to the challenge of meaningful climate action. Denis Naughten, our ‘Climate Action’ minister, has often said he wants to listen to the public and to bring the public with him in tacking climate change. ‘People cannot be commanded, they must be consulted. Society cannot be changed by diktat’, according to Mr Naughten.”
He continued “The people have now been consulted, and they are demanding action far beyond anything Mr Naughten or his Cabinet colleagues have so far proposed. The time, Minister, for sheltering behind the phrase ‘public consultation’ is over. The citizens have spoken.”
John Gibbons concluded “Now that our politicians fully understand the will and the mood of the public for strong action, An Taisce joins with other NGOs in calling for the speedy establishment of a dedicated Oireachtas Committee to take the recommendations in the Report forward and translate them into concrete actions.”
ENDS
For further information, contact:
John Gibbons, An Taisce Climate Change Committee: +353 87 233 2689
Charles Stanley-Smith, Communications, An Taisce. Tel: +353 87 241 1995
email: publicaffairs@antaisce.org
An Taisce The National Trust for Ireland
www.antaisce.org
Notes
About An Taisce
An Taisce is a charity that works to preserve and protect Ireland’s natural and built heritage. We are an independent charitable voice for the environment and for heritage issues. We are not a government body, semi-state or agency. Founded in 1948, we are one of Ireland’s oldest and largest environmental organisations.
