“IT is mind-boggling that politicians are railing against restoring nature here and in Europe and are fighting to defend a broken system of overproduction and excessive intensification.”
Those were the words of Limerick Green Party TD Brian Leddin, who was speaking in the Dáil on nature restoration legislation.
Deputy Leddin was of the opinion that it suits some in politics and big business to create a “bogeyman” of the environmental movement and the Green Party.
Time and again, he claimed, politics has yielded and bowed to the most effective lobbying effort in Europe.
“In politics and in history, we recognise the tactic of divide and conquer. Another tactic, however, which is often more effective, is to unite a group of people in opposition to the wrong cause,” Deputy Leddin suggested.
“This tactic is used to create a distraction and to get people fighting passionately against what might be in their own interests and the interests of the greater good.
“It suits some in politics and big business to create a bogeyman of the environmental movement and, indeed, of the Green Party. We hear the hysterical cries of the agrifood lobby and of those in politics who dance to its tune every time the slightest effort is made to change course, even by a few degrees, away from the unsustainable and environmentally calamitous profit for the few status quo.
“Time and again, politics has yielded and bowed to the most effective lobbying effort in Europe. We have seen this in the context of the debate on the nature restoration law. The European People’s Party, of which Fine Gael is a member in Europe, walked out of talks today. We have seen Sinn Féin, the main party in the Opposition, join forces with Fine Gael in Europe.
“When it comes to seriousness on nature restoration, it seems these parties are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It is impossible to tell them apart,” he added.
“Sure ye are all the one,” Kerry Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae chipped in.
Deputy Leddin deemed it “shameful and pitiful” that Fine Gael and Sinn Féin have yielded to the interests of the few over the many.
“I say this with utter dismay because I have regard for my colleagues across this House. It is mind-boggling that politicians are railing against restoring nature here and in Europe and are fighting to defend a broken system of overproduction and excessive intensification.”
