The Cathaoirleach will be glad to know that I will be very brief. I warmly congratulate Senator Clonan. What a wonderful first speech he has made this morning. It is great to have him among us. I look forward to working with him.

We are taking Report and Final Stages of the Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021 on Thursday. I appeal to Senators of all parties to come out for the photocall at 12.30 p.m. on Thursday. Completing the progress of this Bill will be very important and very significant. Of course, that is in the gift of the Government. I am very mindful of what the Deputy Leader said on Second Stage of this Bill, which was that she did not mind which Bill got through as long as a Bill got through and we got this done. On Thursday, we will have the opportunity to get legislation on safe access zones done. It is regrettable that the Government does not yet have a Bill and cannot give us a timeline for one. That means that this is the only Bill on safe access zones. I appeal to colleagues from across the Chamber to get together on Thursday to get this done and not to keep women waiting.

Hear, hear.

To first address the Bill on safe access zones, as the Cathaoirleach will know, I am a co-signatory so I very much hope that we can pass the Bill on Thursday. I also welcome Senator Clonan and congratulate all of those who ran. It was a stellar performance by an awful lot of people, including members of my party. I congratulate them for putting themselves forward. I am sure we will see them again in the future.

I will also speak about carbon budgets. The IPCC report was stark. If we keep going the way we are going, we will reach 3.2°C above average pre-industrial temperatures by the year 2100. We just cannot do that. We have to move beyond that. For clarity, the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action recommended that we adopt these carbon budgets. Most of the recommendations related to sectoral targets, which have yet to come. That is where the public comes in. It is absolutely essential that the public is behind this. Many of the committee's recommendations related to that. I urge people to support these carbon budgets. We need to act now.

I will be very brief. I also wish to raise the matter of the IPCC report. I particularly welcome the fact that the panel said that we cannot rely on unproven technologies such as carbon capture. That is very welcome. It is unfortunate that we are seeing the nature-based solutions presented by peatlands not being seized upon to the full extent possible. Bord na Móna's plans to put a wind farm in the Mid-Shannon Wilderness Park fly in the face of what we heard from the IPCC yesterday.

I also welcome the fact that the IPCC has finally called out how the Energy Charter Treaty and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms are holding back governments from taking the action needed. They are making the public pay for the stranded assets of fossil fuel companies. I hope the Deputy Leader will consult the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and call on him to have Ireland unilaterally leave the Energy Charter Treaty. The reform process is going nowhere. We have a very small window of time to turn this ship around and the Energy Charter Treaty deserves to be put in the bin.

Well said.