Harris unprepared on Fine Gael MEPs vote for climate denier in important EU role

Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman questioned the Tánaiste on a recent European Parliament vote for Czech MEP Ondřej Knotek’s appointment as Rapporteur on the 2040 Climate Targets File.
Tánaiste Simon Harris today deflected criticism of three Fine Gael MEPs who last week voted to protect the appointment of a climate denier as chief negotiator for an important piece of legislation which will define the European Union’s climate targets up until 2040 - one day before Harris told the Dáil that the climate emergency hasn’t gone away.
During Leaders Questions, Roderic O’Gorman TD pressed the Tánaiste on this stark contrast, noting that the Patriots for Europe Group – the group of Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen’s respective parties – had managed to get Mr Knotek appointed as chief negotiator for the 2040 Climate Targets Law. One of the central aims of the Patriots for Europe Group, as per their website, is for the “abandoning of the European Green Deal”.
“Today’s response from the Tánaiste was weak and unprepared: instead of acknowledging his party’s hypocrisy, he immediately launched into a bizarre non-sequiter deflection directed at Sinn Féin. The ensuing row with Deputy Doherty delayed and lessened the length of time available for his official response” said O’Gorman.
“It seems astonishing to me that the Tánaiste didn’t appear to know that his MEPs voted to support the appointment of a politician who has said that climate activists are “lying to people” and that “there will be no floods and so on…. But that's not true. You have no data, you have no science base, you have no impact assessments: you are just lying”.
“The fact that the Party - but also the individual - being nominated to this position are so publicly anti-science and against climate action is deeply worrying. The fact that Fine Gael support his appointment in a leading role developing European climate law is shocking and hypocritical”, said O’Gorman.
Co-Chair of the European Green Party and Green Party Spokesperson on Europe Ciarán Cuffe stated:
"Fine Gael's colleagues in the European People's Party had the opportunity to take decisive action on climate. Instead they have allowed the far-right 'Patriots for Europe' group to wield significant control over this new EU Climate Law. This proposed law is crucial; it will determine 2040 figures for emission reductions, and there is a real danger that the targets set down in the Paris Agreement a decade ago will be missed."