Young people across Ireland have taken the lead in the fight against the climate crisis at a Youth Assembly in the Dáil today, 15 November.

A number of students are taking part in the Climate Change discussion, calling on the government to act to help combat the global crisis.

A Labour representative has heaped praise on the young people for showing "fantastic leadership" and sending a clear message to decision makers.

Deputy Seán Sherlock said: "The Labour Party has set tackling climate change as one of our core issues, and having introduced Ireland's first climate law and city bikes scheme before, we are committed to delivering on climate again.

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"We believe that real climate action needs the Government to lead a change of industrial strategy through the funding of state enterprises like Bórd na Móna and ESB, to create new and sustainable jobs.

"Labour would invest in a public home retrofitting programme to end the situation where people can't afford to heat their homes.

"We would also invest in public transport to encourage people to leave their cars at home, reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality, and make it safer for cyclists on our roads.

"Labour's Bill to ban microbeads from cosmetic products sought to keep these unnecessary and harmful products from our rivers and oceans, and we introduced our Waste Reduction Bill with the Greens to ban single-use coffee cups.

"Last year Ireland exceeded our annual greenhouse gas emissions allocation by more than five million tonnes. That is simply not good enough. The Government can't just pay lip service to tackling climate change and real action is needed, now.

"I will be listening carefully to the proposals coming from today's Youth Assembly and Labour will give a serious response to them."

(CM/JG)