Madam, - John Gibbons spent much of his very unbalanced column of November 20th attacking the Labour Party's record on tackling climate change. I would like to set the record straight.
Mr Gibbons suggests that the Government's failure to bring forward climate change legislation is due to lack of support from the Opposition. He assumes that "Minister for the Environment John Gormley would jump at the chance to enact climate change legislation". Why, then, has the Green Party failed to take further the Climate Protection Bill which received unanimous support last October in the Seanad? Without question, the Labour Party will support such legislation.
Labour supported a 2005 Green-sponsored Bill on climate change which was defeated by the then Fianna Fáil/PD Government. Labour will also support worthwhile proposals to mitigate climate change. It was on foot of Labour motions which received cross-party support that a number of county, city and town councils and Government offices switched off lights for an hour last March as part of the global campaign "Earth Hour". Most recently, Labour has proposed a national insulation scheme that would simultaneously provide jobs and reduce carbon emissions.
However, it is also our job as an Opposition party to hold the Government to account where its proposals are flawed or merely token ones that provide cover for Government failure to deliver key infrastructural projects that would genuinely reduce carbon emissions. - Yours, etc,
JOANNA TUFFY TD,
Dáil Eireann,
Dublin 2.