The school student climate strikers have chosen 24 May, the same day as the European and local elections, for their next major mobilisation to demand emergency action on climate change. While they are delighted that a climate emergency has been declared, they want to see the action follow the symbolism. The need to do so has been further underlined today by the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii showing that CO2 levels in the atmosphere have reached all time highs. There is now more CO2 in the atmosphere than there has been for 3 million years and at any time in which human life has existed on the planet. We are way beyond emergency levels.

I suggest to the Taoiseach that before 24 May the students would welcome a signal from the Government that it takes this emergency and such shocking news seriously. In that context, I suggest the Taoiseach signal before then that he will drop his opposition to the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018 which seeks to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The Taoiseach should not say that will not make any difference because we are merely one small country.

All right. We are way over time.

This is a global issue. Ms Greta Thunberg's first response to the climate emergency declaration here was that she concurred but that we have got to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Will the Taoiseach agree to that?

We have already passed legislation on fracking, for example, and keeping the gas that may be underneath the land of Ireland in the ground. We take a separate and a different view when it comes to offshore natural gas because we appreciate that natural gas is a transition fuel. While we can go from 30% renewables to 70% renewables, and we will do that by 2030, we will still need natural gas under certain circumstances, for example, when the wind is not blowing fast enough, when the sun is not shining bright enough and when batteries do not provide adequate storage. Everyone appreciates that we will still need to use natural gas to a certain extent for the foreseeable future. The question is, if we have our own, do we use our own or do we import it instead from the United States, the Middle East, Qatar and other parts of the world and then take the environmental risk that arises from transporting it? On balance we believe it makes more sense if we have natural gas, recognising that it is a transition fuel, that we should use our own.