A CORK STUDENT has told Irish politicians today that young people are “absolutely furious” with their inaction on climate change. 

Sumaya Mohammed, a 12-year-old student from Cork Educate Together was one of five students to blast members of the Oireachtas Climate Action Committee today. 

She told the politicians that while young people in Ireland should be care-free, they are left worrying about the future of the planet, and are forced to have to tell politicians “how to do their job”. 

You know the root of the problem -  greediness and money being allowed to rule.

Yet you continue to look at us and say to us that you are proud of us, yet the moment you walk out of this room, the fact that you don’t do anything, makes us wonder, are you thinking of your image more than you are thinking of us.

She then sent a message to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and those in government.

“So dear Leo and all the politicians, we are beyond furious. We shouldn’t have to be doing this, we shouldn’t be giving up our basic human right – education – to clean up your mess. 

“You give us compliments about how AMAZING it is that school children are standing up for their futures. You said you were inspired and enthused but your compliments are worthless to us without action,” she said, adding that everyone seems to have forgotten the commitments signed up to in the Paris Agreement. 

“We are Europe’s laggards and it shouldn’t be that way,” she added, then sending a hard-hitting message to the politicians who are also parents. 

“Those of you politicians that have children, you love your children more than anything else, but like Greta Thunberg said, you are stealing their future right in front of their very faces. You are stealing my future and you have absolutely no right.”