PROTESTERS have gathered outside Irish parliament to demand that the government stops blocking a bill which would ban fossil-fuel exploitation.
Some are accusing the government of being a ‘puppet’ of big oil and gas and are claiming that they are intentionally ‘sabotaging’ the bill.
The Climate Emergency bill has already passed two stages in the Irish parliament, but the Fine Gael government are blocking it from being successfully passed into law.
Due to this, swathes of people have taken to the streets outside parliament in Dublin to highlight the issue, including members of People Before Profit (PBP).
Our TD @RBoydBarrett explains why dozens protested at Dail today to defend @bridsmithTD #ClimateEmergency bill which FG are undemoratically blocking. Join the protest to save the bill 1pm June 11th Dáil. #bloom2019 #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/Hy5zwu94wE
— People Before Profit (@pb4p) May 30, 2019
PBP’s Richard Boyd Barrett has accused the government of “trying to overturn the democratic decision” of the Irish parliament by using what he described as “procedural trickery” in order to stop the bill from progressing.
He described the situation as “outrageous”.
Barrett went on to suggest that Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was a hypocrite for recently stressing the importance of tackling climate issues, only to try and sabotage legislation for it days later, saying:
“(Varadkar) was talking about the government taking climate action seriously, that he was going to accelerate government policy on this. Then, two days later, he tries to sabotage a bill that is attempting to process a major demand of the global climate movement.”
Greenwave? climate action? Govt just tried to kill the Climate Emergency Measures bill with more trickery; if we are to stop catastrophic climate change we need rid of this Govt and a mass movement to force real action, protest at Dail at 1pm on Thursday to save the bill pic.twitter.com/9nSNYLvUmM
— Brid Smith TD (@bridsmithTD) May 28, 2019
Barrett also said that Varadkar’s government had “issued new licenses to the gas and oil industry” and insisted that Fine Gael were their “puppets”.
“Fine Gael are just puppets for the gas and oil industry,” he said.
“We need to get out on the streets now to force this bill back through the Dail.”
The bill in question, which is sponsored by PBP, has been introduced in order to curb the level of CO2 in the atmosphere by limiting the amount of licenses handed for fossil-fuel extraction.
The PBP has organised another protest outside parliament on June 11.
