Deputy Bríd Smith is next.

I hope it is okay for me to remain seated. I have a broken leg and I find it hard to stand. I did not fall off a swing and I am not suing anybody.

Very funny.

I want to raise something that is very urgent and important; much more urgent than anything of that nature. This month two new reports on what is happening to our globe were published. Ice is melting in the Arctic at six times the rate that was previously thought according to a report from the University of Edinburgh, which was published in early June. The global plant survey from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew shows that plant life is becoming extinct five times faster than was thought to be the case. In northern India as I speak, poor people who have no shelter or access to water are dropping dead in the worst heatwave the country has ever experienced, with 40°C heat recorded in Delhi and 51°C recorded in other parts of northern India.

I ask the Taoiseach to engage with us in a serious conversation about what the hell his Government is doing in response to climate change. I heard him on television, following the green wave in the recent election, saying that he gets it and understands it but I ask him to give us evidence of that. In the past week, since the results of the election were announced, I discovered that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has slapped a money message on the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018 that we have painstakingly tried to rescue from the hostage position in which it has been held by this Government. There are also money messages on Sinn Féin's Microgeneration Support Scheme Bill 2017 and the Green Party's Waste Reduction Bill 2017.

These money messages seriously need to be questioned because they involve small amounts - beer money, really - compared with what the Government is willing to spend on defending Donald Trump or on a botched tendering process for broadband. Some €26 million was spent on tendering for broadband and at least €10 million was spent on the Trump visit. The Government is using tiny amounts as an excuse to block serious Bills, which would send a message to the fossil fuel and plastic industries and tell them that the game is up and that they will have to start paying for the damage they are doing to the planet.

The State seems to be fond of slapping taxes on little people whether in the form of water taxes, increased carbon taxes, or increased property tax. Why the hell is the same attitude not taken to the global corporations that irresponsibly continue to dig up and burn fossil fuels and to develop the plastics industry which is destroying our oceans and their ecology? Everybody else pays for it while they do not, yet they continue to make vast profits. Rather than attacking my Bill in a sentence again, is the Taoiseach seriously saying that it is worth blocking these measures to pay some kind of lip service to industry while holding back this country's progress towards being a leader in dealing with climate chaos?

I thank the Deputy. I am very sorry to hear about her injury and I hope she makes a speedy recovery.

I thank the Taoiseach.

The Deputy asked for practical examples of the kind of climate action Government is taking, so I will give her a few.

I did not ask for that. I asked why the Taoiseach is blocking these other actions with money messages.

The Deputy said that there is no evidence that Government is taking climate action. I will respond to that-----

Here comes a lot of hot air.

-----by giving her examples of four practical measures taken in recent weeks. I signed a joint letter with President Macron to build a Celtic interconnector between Ireland and continental Europe which will allow us to expand our renewable energy sector and to share it with Europe.

It will allow us to import nuclear energy.

Irish Rail issued the initial tender for 600 hybrid electric vehicles as we start to move towards an electric rail fleet and to electrify the lines to Drogheda, Maynooth and Celbridge. Dublin Bus received the first of its low-emission buses.

Three buses.

All buses being procured for our cities from now on will be low-emission vehicles. Just today Cabinet voted to publish legislation to outlaw the manufacture of microbeads in Ireland. There are four practical examples-----

The Taoiseach has forgotten about smoky coal.

-----of measures taken by Government in recent weeks that will make a difference. These will be followed by the publication of the Government's climate plan in the coming weeks. Government wants sensible climate action, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions rather than legislation which pays lip service to doing so. It wants sensible climate action that reduces greenhouse gas emissions but which does not cost us our jobs, make us poorer, or make us less secure. The difficulty we have with the legislation the Deputy is putting forward is that it will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all. We all know and acknowledge that we will need to continue using natural gas for decades to come. Some 30% of our energy mix is now renewable and, with major effort, we can get to 70% by 2030. We will, however, still need to use natural gas as part of our energy mix for decades to come. Homes and businesses around the country will still use natural gas as part of their energy mix. The question arises, if we will still have to use natural gas, a proposal which any reasonable person or climate scientist will accept, should we use our own or should we use natural gas imported from shale sands in North America, from the Middle East or from Russia? We believe that, if we have to use it, it makes more sense to use our own on grounds of cost, energy security and the environment-----

That is nonsense. It is utter nonsense.

-----because of the risks and costs of transport. We have accepted other legislation. We have accepted two Private Member's Bills, one from Deputy McLoughlin to outlaw fracking and another from Deputy Pringle to end investment by State funds in fossil fuel companies. We have, therefore, demonstrated that we will support legislation which makes sense, actually works and will not do unintended harm. Unfortunately, the Deputy's Bill does not meet those tests.

I want to pick up on something the Taoiseach mentioned. He said he wanted climate action that does not hurt jobs, make people poorer or make things more severe for people. Bord na Móna workers are facing redundancy and replacement into other jobs. In the words of their union official, they are being treated abysmally because we are making a bags of the first challenge of just transition for both the workers and the community.

On the issue of our natural gas, three days after this House declared a climate emergency the Government issued a licence to Exxon Mobil and the Chinese state oil company - those nasty communist Chinese - to drill for oil 200 miles off the Kerry coast. If they find it, more than likely it will not come back here because it would not be economically efficient or suitable to do so. It would not be commercially viable. Therefore it is not our gas. It is gas this State is selling off for a pittance to global corporations, which the Taoiseach refuses to challenge. He refuses to challenge them because he is being lobbied by them consistently. These companies are in the oil, plastics and energy industries. Until the Taoiseach takes this seriously he has no credibility. If he does not challenge the corporations, nobody will believe him when it comes to climate action.

I have not been lobbied by them at all. I said earlier the Government wants to take sensible climate action, that is, climate action that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps us to save our planet, but at the same time does not cost jobs, does not make us poorer and does not make us less safe. The difficulty with some of the Deputy's proposals is that they potentially would make us poorer, cost jobs-----

Like the Bord na Móna workers.

-----and make us less energy secure without reducing greenhouse emissions by any amount.

Not true. How can the Taoiseach say that?

We are transitioning Bord na Móna from a peat company to one that is involved in waste and renewable energy. It is exactly what we should be doing because we are phasing out peat production in the State.

And treating workers abysmally.

The Taoiseach without interruption, please.

As part of the just transition, there is a voluntary redundancy scheme for Bord na Móna workers which has been oversubscribed. In addition, packages are being put in place for the retraining of workers.