Oisín Coughlan

Well, yes, they aren't moving fast enough and doing enough to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

And we asked this question through Ireland Thinks because today is Earth Day.

So we thought it was a good time to ask it.

But specifically because, and people might know this,

This government, the Fianna Fáil and Fianna Gael government, have really strong language on fossil fuels from last January, before the latest fossil fuel crisis happened, like January 2025, in the programme for government.

When they sat down to write the programme, what they want to do, they said the government is committed to decisive action to radically reduce our reliance on imported, expensive fossil fuels.

I couldn't have written better myself.

It's very timely.

It's very clear on the problems we're now having.

But our point is we don't think they've done enough between last January of 2025 and now to do that.

And it seems the public agree.

Can you explain why that is?

What reasons can you see for the strong policy statement and the lack of action?

Well, I do think they are, I was going to say the victims of, but certainly subject to the same sense of a shift in the political vibes that affected Europe across 2024 when there was a move to the right in the European Parliament.

And people like the EPP, the party that Fine Gael is part of, decided not to be outflanked by the right and therefore to attack, in the case of the EPP, it was attack environmental policy and climate policy.

And Fine Gael actually haven't done that here to the same extent at all.

And in fact, they were instrumental at the European level at getting the nature restoration work across the line.

But there was a sense, as the Greens got damaged in the elections, that climate action was so last year and that, you know, let's talk about building things and all things that are very necessary and let's not let environmental considerations get in the way.

It's all linked back to Donald Trump as well, isn't it?

Well, that's true.