I am sure the Taoiseach has heard about Greta Thunberg. She is the now 16 year old Swedish school student who started a worldwide movement of school student strikes and protests demanding action on climate change. At the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, conference in Poland, she stated:

For 25 years, countless people have come to the UN climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions and clearly that has not worked as emissions continue to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future. I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.

That urgency for action, that recognition that we cannot rely on convincing those in power to do what is necessary is absolutely correct. It is perhaps the reason the European Parliament groups to which Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil belong have blocked her from speaking to that assembly this week. The latest IPCC report warns that we have 12 years to avoid global warming growing over 1.5°C. After that, a further 0.5°C would have devastating consequences. Sea level rises would affect 10 million people, 99% of coral would be destroyed and many insects would be wiped out. The current level of commitments, which are not even being honoured, would still mean a rise in temperature of 3°C. In fact, given what is actually happening, we are heading towards a 4°C to 5°C increase in temperature, which will make large parts of the Earth uninhabitable. That is why young people have taken the lead. More than 300 cities have seen strikes by schoolchildren, while hundreds of thousands have come out on the streets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Germany and elsewhere.

I note that 15 March has been named as the date for a global school student strike action. School students in Ireland will, hopefully, join that in large numbers. The contrast of those young people with the inaction of the world's leaders could not be starker. The contrast is stark not only with climate change deniers like Trump, but with those like the Taoiseach, who acknowledge that climate change exists and the role of human society in it but who do not want to do anything about it. As a result, Ireland is the second worst in the EU at meeting climate change targets. According to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, today, Ireland is third worst in the EU at meeting renewable energy targets. The reason for this inaction is clear. Establishment politicians represent big business, including the 90 corporations responsible for 63% of cumulative global emissions and the oil, gas and big agribusiness companies pursuing the maximisation of profit. A mass movement on climate change is needed and the school students should be joined by others, in particular the trade unions, to demand investment in green jobs and a centrally-based eco-socialist programme to take control of the economy out of the hands of the polluters and profiteers and to place it under the democratic control of the public to enable the rapid just transition we need.

I have two questions for the Taoiseach. First, will he listen to school students when they strike on 15 March? Second, given that transport is the second largest emitting sector of the economy, will he agree that radical action is needed to get people out of cars, that the State should invest in properly funded public transport services and, furthermore, should make public transport free, as has happened in Estonia, Luxembourg and 100 cities around the world?

The Deputy's time is up.

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of climate change. To reply to his first question, yes, of course, I will listen and I do. Second, we need to invest in public transport. One of the actions we are taking, for example, is that from the middle of this year Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann in the other cities-----

Dublin again. Do not forget Dublin.

-----will no longer purchase high emission vehicles. They will all be no or low emission vehicles. As the Deputy is aware, we are implementing proposals for major investments in public transport through projects such as BusConnects, MetroLink and so forth, of which I hope he will be supportive.

I heard Greta's speech. The fact that young people are taking action, protesting and going to strike and take a break from school on 15 March is good. It is welcome. Unlike the Deputy, I do not see it as a party political matter. It is quite different and I have heard what they have said. These are young people who are standing up to adults. They are children, pupils and students telling all of the adults in all parties to get their act together and do more about climate change because it is their future that is in jeopardy. That is why I support what they are doing and we all must listen to what they are saying.

Among the people who must listen are those in socialist parties such as the Deputy's who are climate tax deniers and deny the fact that a carbon tax or climate charge must be part of the solution to climate change. We know that a carbon charge alone will not solve the problem of climate change, but we equally know and science tells us that without it we cannot achieve our objectives. It must be part of the solution.

Cut emissions.

That is why I ask the Deputy to listen to what the students are saying and why they say his policy on carbon charging is wrong. He should ask them what they think of it.

First, it is great that the Taoiseach supports the school students' strike on 15 March.

Brilliant.

School students across the country should take it as the green light to walk out next Friday week in protest against climate inaction. That is what the school students' strike is about.

Order, please.

The Government has stated it supports them. If it is not to be a patronising pat on the back, it will support and defend the rights of the students who are protesting for their future and the future of humanity. I agree that it is not a narrow party political issue. However, the system and policies the Taoiseach defends are incompatible with dealing with the issue of climate change. An economy that continues to be based on the drive for profit of individual companies that treat nature and damage to it as an externality cannot deliver the rapid change needed. What is required is a democratically planned economy. That is why we need eco-socialist policies.

Second, using climate change as a green washing exercise to try to introduce more regressive taxation measures will not wash with people. They know that the polluters are the top companies which are responsible for 63% of emissions.

The Deputy's time is up.

I return to the question I asked and ask the Taoiseach to answer it, as opposed to posing questions to me. Free public transport would have a major impact on emissions from the second biggest sector in the economy.

The Deputy has made his point.

It would only cost €600 million, the same amount as the fines Ireland could be facing annually from next year. If the Government is serious about listening to students, will it give a commitment to invest in properly funded - properly paid and proper conditions for the workers - and free public transport?

No, we are not going to introduce free public transport. Many public transport services, particularly at peak times, are already operating at capacity; therefore, making public transport free would not enable any more people to use it.

Invest more in it.

They can stay in their cars.

Instead of using €600 million to make public transport free, we should use that €600 million to invest in public transport, to increase capacity, to have more buses and more trains more frequently, and to invest in rural public transport as well so that more people use it, not just so it becomes free. The solution to all our problems is not to tax everything and make it free. Rather, it is improving the quality of our services, including transport.

I will repeat what I said earlier. I am inspired and enthused by the fact that young people, students and school pupils are taking a real interest in climate action, that they are going to protest and that they are putting it up to all of us in all parties, and to all adults, to do more when it comes to climate action.

Why then is the Taoiseach not doing it?

I hear that and I am listening to it. I ask the Deputy to listen to it too because socialists are no friends of the environment. They opposed water metering and water charges and they now deny that a carbon tax is part of the solution to climate change. The Deputy should listen to students too and ask them what they think about water conservation-----

The Government missed all the targets.

-----what they think about carbon tax, and not tell them what socialists think they should think.

Did the Taoiseach not hear the news this morning? All of the targets were missed.