Paul Murphy accuses the government of ramming through legislation that will dismantle Ireland's climate commitments and enable effectively unlimited expansion of Dublin Airport. He spoke during debate on the LNG Bill and the airport bill, warning there has been no proper economic, climate or health assessment and that children's rights were ignored.
What happened tonight
Paul Murphy criticised the parliamentary timetable and procedure, saying committee stage and report stage were being rushed together so most amendments cannot be properly debated. He described the move as a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny of controversial measures.
Central concerns raised
Murphy highlighted that the bills would disapply legally binding climate obligations in practice and that aviation is now causing more climate harm in Ireland than cars. He accused the Minister of centralising the power to remove the passenger cap at Dublin Airport in a single hand.
Impact on communities and children
The speaker pointed to the lack of environmental, economic and health impact assessments and said local communities and groups such as Children's Rights Over Flights were not meaningfully consulted. He argued these decisions place corporate profits ahead of children's health and future climate stability.
Political consequence
Murphy framed the measures as favouring aviation corporations, naming Michael O'Leary and Ryanair, and warned that rushing the legislative process prevents a full parliamentary and public examination of the implications for climate targets, biodiversity, health and local communities.
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Thanks Ciann Comhairle. The Minister himself wasn't here when I spoke earlier on the LNG Bill, so I'll make the point to you now. What you're doing tonight is disgraceful. This is in six hours a bonfire of our climate commitments and what we're seeing in action is what your abandonment of the targets that are legally binding, that we got told so many times are legally binding, therefore we didn't need to worry the government's going to do everything. This is what this means. It's what you've done in terms of LNG, it's what you're doing now, you know. I mean it's a disgrace what you're doing, right, the content of it, but the way that you're doing it. I mean it's outrageous, it is utterly outrageous that we're expected to deal with the bill like this, the bill that we just dealt with, and the next bill we're doing in two hours. Committee stage, report stage, all in one go, we're not going to get to a tiny fraction of the amendments, we won't have any sort of detailed engagement. Why? Because we're under so much pressure for time? No, because you don't want to discuss this stuff, you don't want to have the debate about it, you don't want the Emperor to be seen to have, and to be said to have, no clothes. That on this issue you haven't even done an economic impact assessment, and yet you're proposing to disapply the climate obligations. You know it's like it's such a joke to say that we have these climate obligations and they're legally binding, but whenever we're going to do anything that actually is bad for the environment we're going to disapply obligations that are legally binding. It just makes them entirely worthless. Aviation is now doing more climate harm in Ireland than cars, and what the Minister is hiding behind that aviation emissions aren't counted in our climate targets, but the point has been made, so what? Like we're not in this just for where the emissions are counted, the climate keeps the score. The greenhouse gas emissions are counted where it matters, and in terms of the impact it's going to have on the world that our children and our children's children struggle to live in. Another outrageous feature of what's being proposed is the centralizing of decision-making about removing the cap outright with one person, you the Minister. Unlimited expansion of Dublin Airport is effectively promised here. The Minister has previously referred to 60 million passengers a year, almost double the current cap. You've had no evaluation of the climate or environmental implications it will lead to, no evaluation of the economic, social and health costs of just letting Dublin Airport rip at the behest of Michael O'Leary. No climate or biodiversity experts consulted by the Minister. I know that the excellent group Children's Rights Over Flights tried to meet with you, numerous requests and no chance to meet with you. No consideration of children's rights including their right to a stable climate, even as very very young children die from extreme heat in France. Ignoring the local opposition to the airport for health, for noise, for environmental reasons, including ignoring the recommendations of pre-legislative scrutiny by the committee. Quote, that meaningful engagement is undertaken by the DAA with local communities to mitigate the impact of noise from the North Runway. No such thing has taken place and just be in no doubt about it, what is happening is that the Michael O'Leary's, the Ryanair's, the very big aviation corporations, their profits are being put before children's health. That's what's happening and to avoid a proper light being shone on that and to avoid a proper debate about what's going on here, to avoid a proper discussion of the various amendments we have, the government then just rams it all through, sandwiches it all together and does it in two hours and presumably Michael O'Leary would be very happy. Thank you.
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