Amendment No. 13 in the name of Senator Higgins and amendments Nos. 14 and 34 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendments Nos. 20 and 77 to 81, inclusive, are related. Amendments Nos. 78 to 80, inclusive, are physical alternatives to amendment No. 77. Amendments Nos. 20 and 77 to 81, inclusive, may be discussed together by agreement.

As a member of the Green Party, I thought it would be appropriate for me to come in on this matter. I thank the Minister for clarifying that this Bill is not doing anything more than what it says. It is not changing any legislation, unless the Bill specifically says that it is changing legislation. There is no legislation being changed that will put in jeopardy lands that are mentioned here, such as lands under the National Parks and Wildlife Service. I am not entirely sure why the Phoenix Park has been singled out…

The concerns that were raised were valid ones. Farmers were concerned that sequestration was not going to be taken into account. As I said on Friday, anything that we can do to allay farmers' concerns is very important. We are all on the same side. As Senator Garvey stated, and I said last week, we recognise that farmers are the custodians of the land. The work they do must be taken into account when we are coming up with that calculation. It is important to remember that the carbon budget means the total amount of…

We are very much behind both a just transition and climate justice. Everybody needs to be clear on that. The decision not to accept Senator Higgins's amendment to remove the definition is one with the best of intentions. This is not academics but law, and it is important to get that law right. As I said last week, we have spent a long time discussing climate justice and a just transition. There is a definition of climate justice from Mary Robinson, for instance, that we found would not achieve the best results. Par…

I do not fully agree with the definition. To return to the original point, I did not say the reason we should not have a definition is we cannot all agree in this Chamber. What I said was that there are many different interpretations and definitions possible, including, I would say, this one. It leaves out intergenerational justice, for instance. The Bill, when looking at just transition, refers to maximising employment opportunities and supporting persons and communities that may be negatively affected by the tran…

I reiterate what I said on Committee Stage in relation to the sustainable development goals. I want to see them implemented in regard to other things, such as in planning and across the board in different Departments. This needs to be put on some kind of a footing. While we have signed up to the UN's sustainable development goals, I agree that it needs to be placed on a stronger footing in this country. I argue that the Bill is providing for everything that is required under the sustainable development goals. It wo…

I reiterate the points I made on Committee Stage in regard to the Aarhus Convention. During pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action, I pushed to have recommendation 57 included in the recommendations. The Minister might let us know if this Bill has been checked for compatability with the Aarhus Convention. Last week, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, said that he believes this Bill goes beyond the Aarhus Convention and, therefore, it is not appropriate necessarily to h…

I thank the Deputy Leader for taking the Order of Business today. Some 200 million people across the globe are living on land that is projected to be permanently below the tideline by the end of this century. Apart from that, chronic floods are set to affect 300 million people within the next three decades. We do not have to look that far ahead. In recent days, Dublin Cycling Campaign has highlighted that significant portions of the Dublin Bay South constituency - the constituency where we have all been pounding th…

I welcome the Minister to the House. We had extensive conversations on this issue on Committee Stage but I will reiterate some of the points because they are arising here again. We have been waiting for this legislation since 2017, and most of us have probably been waiting for it most of our working lives as women.

It is important that we now move ahead with the Bill. I thank the Minister for accepting an amendment on Report Stage in the Dáil because the review will be key. We must not renegotiate something else at this point or postpone this for another three or four years. We need this legislation enacted and in place now. It gives us transparency and an understanding of what is happening across the board in companies. It is not legal to discriminate. Having said that, it is difficult for individual employees within compani…

Any time I speak on Committee or Report Stages I am always honest, even with our own Minister, and I point out what I think could be changed in a Bill. It is very important that we have flexibility. If we pass legislation that does not have flexibility when it comes to regulations, we will be no longer able to make regulations that are robust and exactly fit for purpose. It is only at the time we sit down to make regulations that we can really truly see how to make them as robust as possible. We are fortunate that …

I thank the Acting Chairperson. There is no better person to preside over Committee Stage. Others have spoken on this. The Minister has outlined everything that has been done apart from this Bill. It is important to look at this Bill in that context. A number of amendments were about firming up some of the decision-making about gender pay gap legislation. I can understand it when looking at one Bill in isolation. Much has been done in the short time that this Minister has been in office. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorm…

When we talk about these amendments and the things we can add in, we forget about all the things that are already in the Bill. As the Minister of State noted, and the Minister referred to this on Friday as well, the actions of the Government and the Minister must be consistent with the UNFCCC and Articles 2 and 4.1 of the Paris Agreement. Let us not forget the number of commitments in those agreements, which include a number of the matters mentioned in some of these amendments. The Bill is peppered with references …

Absolutely, but we are moving on to other issues that are not in the amendments.

On a point of order-----

This is in reference to somebody talking about amendments that were not included in the group being discussed. We are talking specifically about these amendments.

I have clarified that point. It has nothing to do with that. The issue is that we cannot go forward while talking about other amendments. We are talking about specific amendments.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House, although she is no stranger to the convention centre. This boils down to a stranglehold the Catholic Church has had on Irish society. It is important to point out those who have been heckling others today, defending the Catholic Church and saying the Catholic Church has a right to be involved in healthcare are anti-choice. That is the concern we have. I am not a religious person. I am not Catholic. I have a right to go into a State hospital and have the kind of care I w…

Ten minutes remain and we have three speakers so perhaps Senator Mullen could contain his contribution to three and a half minutes, if he would not mind.