Climate Minister Eamon Ryan has said he wants up to 1,200 homes built on Dublin Port, as he criticised current plans to expand the port’s capacity.
“The proposal to double the capacity of the port by 2040 is excessive,” the Green Party leader said in a leaflet sent out to constituents, adding that “Dublin Port needs a better plan for the future.”
“At a time when we are reducing our need to import fossil fuels and moving towards a circular economy, it is difficult to understand why [port] traffic will double in the next 17 years.”
He said that instead of expanding the port, several sites should be used to build large amounts of housing.
“There are 3 potential Dublin Port sites that I believe should be used for housing,” he said.
“These sites are close to the city centre, and could provide up to 1,200 social, affordable and cost rental homes.”
Notably, Ryan’s party has already insisted that the world is already seeing a “climate breakdown” in terms of flooding.
In a campaign video released last July, a series of Green Party politicians said that with “flood waters ripping through the world’s major cities, it’s becoming ever clearer that climate breakdown is already here.”
They added: “It’s at our door, and it’s the biggest global threat our planet has ever faced.”
Similarly, in February of this year, Green Party Arts Minister Catherine Martin unveiled ‘Línte na Farraige’ – an art piece where an LED light was wrapped around a Martello tower in Dun Laoghaire to represent how high the sea level could rise as a result of climate change. The piece was funded by the taxpayer, as part of the Green Party’s €3 million Creative Climate Action Fund to finance climate-related art projects.
A new light installation has been switched on in Galway to show how sea levels could rise, as a result of climate change. The Línte na Farraige project combines scientific research with a visual display, to bring home the threat posed to coastal areas | https://t.co/thvPtkbQfF pic.twitter.com/nPoxgaZKZY
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 29, 2022
“Art installation, Línte na Farraige, shows the stark reality of rising sea levels,” said Martin.
“It’s one of our Creative Climate Action projects and I hope it sparks conversations on the urgency of climate action.”
Art installation, Línte na Farraige, shows the stark reality of rising sea levels.
Well done to artists @TimoAh0 & @niittyvirta
It's one of our Creative Climate Action projects and I hope it sparks conversations on the urgency of climate action#DLR #BlackrockPark pic.twitter.com/j4LMewQp5m
— Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) February 21, 2023
According to climate NGO Climate Central, within a few decades huge parts of Dublin Port will be at serious risk of annual flooding.
Frightening climate change map shows parts of Ireland underwater by 2050 https://t.co/v02GWa56Q9
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) July 29, 2021
Last November Fine Gael Junior Minister Patrick O’Donovan told RTÉ that “there are places that we simply will not be able to defend” against floods, adding that some people would have to leave their homes due to climate change.
Minister Patrick O'Donovan said "there are places that we simply will not be able to defend"https://t.co/yhOOFWK3vP
— DublinLive (@DublinLive) November 10, 2022
“We have to start a very serious conversation in relation to climate adaptation,” he said.
“…We will have, unfortunately, in this country some people who will have to leave their homes because of climate change. We don’t yet [have a number] but there are places that we simply will not be able to defend.”
Gript reached out to ask Minister Ryan if he’d like to comment on the juxtaposition of statements. However, no response was received.