I hope the Tánaiste will be a bit more progressive in answering me. The Danish Government decided last week to leave the Energy Charter Treaty. It joined a growing list of European countries that have left the treaty. Eight European countries have declared intentions to leave and 15 EU member states, at least 60% of the EU population, are needed for the EU to withdraw from the treaty. Final talks are ongoing at the moment. The treaty has been described as a threat to climate action by civil society groups and UN experts. It violates the goals of the Paris climate agreement by offering legal protection to climate-wrecking fossil fuel companies. This treaty allows fossil fuel companies to sue governments due to reduced profits because of environmental reforms of climate action. The most notorious case is the suing of the Netherlands for €2 billion by German giants RWE and Juniper for the Netherlands' decision to phase out coal.

We are in the middle of a climate catastrophe and our Government, which contains a so-called Green Party, cannot support a decision to leave a treaty that allows giant corporations, which are already making billions of euro in extra profit due to price-gouging and greed, to sue governments for essential moves such as phasing out fossil fuels like coal. Coal is one of the fossil fuels most deadly to the planet and we are allowing corporations with billions of euro in profits to sue countries over its phasing out. It is a joke. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, said we are protecting €2.15 trillion in profits for these energy companies. We have seen this time and again with treaties such as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The Government seems wedded to the idea that giant companies with multibillion euro profit lines that grow year by year should have the right to sue our Government for implementing reforms to protect our citizens and this planet from the harms of climate change and the profit and greed of neoliberal capitalism.

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ryan, stated that Ireland will support an EU decision to leave the treaty and our geography and educated workforce offers us one of the greatest opportunities to lead on new green technologies and policies. We can be sued for developing those policies because it is eating into the profits of those companies. More than that, year by year, one IPCC report after another states that the world is hurtling towards a disaster of unmanageable proportions. Scientists and experts are talking about societal and economic collapse on a scale not seen in modern times. People all over the world are dying because of the climate catastrophe. This treaty is in direct opposition to taking action on this disaster. Experts call this treaty utter failure and ecocide. Will this Government commit to leaving the treaty or will it continue to support a treaty that values the profits of massive corporations over the lives of every person who lives on this planet?

On our position in respect of climate, there is no question that in the past two and a half years, the actions taken by the Government have been a watershed in Ireland's response to the climate crisis.

We are not meeting our targets.

Without question, our response will have an impact in the years to come. One of the challenges we have is that our population is growing. We have gone from less than 3.5 million people in the early 1990s to 5.2 million today and that is a factor across public services, housing, climate and economic growth. Maintaining and supporting that population creates its own challenges for us with regard to climate change. I have been at the European Council and the EU has been clear about the targets for 2030 and 2050 and, more critically, to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. The war in Ukraine has accelerated the move to reduce dependency on coal for energy and so on by the end of the decade. In the short term, because of the crisis brought about by the war in Ukraine, some countries are unfortunately moving back to coal and so forth. From our perspective, we need to double down on offshore wind energy, as well as additional onshore wind energy, to eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels over time.

Regarding a specific treaty, we have signed up for Fit for 55 within the EU. We as a country have set extremely challenging targets in respect of climate. The Deputy referred to the "so-called Green Party". I think the Green Party has made a significant contribution to this agenda. The programme for Government is clear both about the climate issue and the biodiversity crisis. We want to move from the fossil fuel area. The challenge will be how fast we can do it as the population grows and how we can, through planning systems and so on, get both onshore and offshore wind proposals through. We have choices to make as a society. We do not actually have the luxury to oppose all forms of energy development. People in communities have rights and entitlements. Given the nature of the crisis, I support the view of the President of the European Commission that we need an overriding public interest clause for offshore wind, for example, and the crisis in climate should override other considerations once we have fully considered people's concerns. We should then be in a position to accelerate and pass vital infrastructure that will be required through the planning process.

I am no more enlightened than when I stood up three or four minutes ago. Germany, preceded by France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Luxembourg, have recently announced their intention to withdraw from the treaty, citing the charter's incompatibility with the EU climate goals. Luxembourg's energy minister, Claude Turmes, said in comments poster on Twitter, "This is what the government council has decided today, based on my proposition." He continued, "Even if the modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty leads to some progress, the treaty is still not compatible with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, as it continues to protect investments in fossil and nuclear energies." I ask the Government to say that it will withdraw from this Energy Charter Treaty. It is protecting the profits of fossil fuel companies that are wrecking our climate. We need 15 countries in the EU to announce they will pull out of it and to pull out of it before the EU can pull out of it. In 2021, the Commission said the EU should pull out of it.

We should be very strong in supporting our fellow European countries, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain, in pulling out of the charter.

Our general approach has been to work in concert with the European Union collectively. That will be our position in respect of the Energy Charter Treaty. In other words-----

But they do not know what is going to happen.

Moves are afoot to modernise and reform the treaty to make it compatible with the Paris Agreement and EU policies. Failing that, of course, we reserve the option to withdraw in respect of any incompatibility with the treaty and our position. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications is on the record as saying he is working with others on that modernisation and reform agenda-----

In the meantime, we can be sued by these-----

-----and that we reserve the option to withdraw, if necessary. The Minister and the Government have real concerns regarding the treaty and aspects of its compatibility with the EU's climate change agenda, which is very far-seeing.

Our intention should be stronger.

The point I endeavoured to make earlier was that we sometimes get fixated on specific Acts and so on. There is no doubt the direction of travel by the European Commission and most members of the EU - not all but the vast majority of them - is towards net zero.

The Energy Charter Treaty is incompatible with the Paris Agreement.