Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for all their work and their presentations, which were sobering. I take the point about people having better lives now. I agree with that and it is very important that climate action is part and parcel of transforming people's lives for the better. The point that we are not on track to meet our statutory targets and that current policies and actions are not sufficient was also made clear.

Sometimes climate action or climate catastrophe is spoken about as if we are all equally responsible. I do not believe that is helpful because people do not have equal amounts of political or economic power. People also do not have equal amounts of emissions, either directly from their personal consumption or from companies they own, control and make decisions about. Professor Daly said "Taking action to address the direct drivers of emissions may challenge vested interests that have a strong interest in maintaining the status quo." I am interested in who the witnesses identify as the vested interests in Ireland. Globally, fossil fuel companies are probably the most powerful and most entrenched and they keep clear and obvious vested interests but actually they are not a major factor in this country. I am interested in who the top three or five vested interests are here who have an interest in blocking action that the rest of society needs.