Climate activists glue themselves to Dept of Climate Action building in Dublin
Climate change protesters have glued themselves to the doors of a government building in Dublin.
Five activists from the Extinction Rebellion group have used superglue to form a chain blocking the door of the Department of Communications and Climate Action on Adelaide Road.
It comes as People Before Profit's Bríd Smith, who arrived to support the group, said she is bringing a legal challenge over the Government's move to block her Climate Emergency Bill.
Ms Smith said that young people were “shouting and screaming” about climate change and being “ignored by the government”.
“This is the department of inaction, because anything they say they will do has to be taken with a dose of hypocrisy,” she said.
"They are being lobbied heavily by the oil and gas industry, one of the most powerful industries in the world."
“The protest here is so important because we can’t let them away with that.
“This is a climate emergency and we’re seeing it on a daily basis.”
Environment Minister Richard Bruton insists a ban on extracting oil and gas would not cut carbon emissions.
Earlier today, climate activists protested during a speech on forestry by the Minister for the Environment.
Paul McCormack-Cooney from Walkinstown in Dublin is one of those taking part in the protest and he said he felt he had to take direct action.
Mr McCormack-Cooney said: "It probably sounds pretty mad. If you'd asked me this time last year or had said to me I'd be doing this, I would have said you were mad.
"But then the IPCC, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the UN's chief body on climate science, they came out with their shocking report which said we had 12 years to try and avert a global catastrophe."
