Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their comprehensive statements and questions. I was interested around the tax on excess corporate profits and those international tools that are being used. I would like to pick the witnesses' brains not only on the idea of Ireland being a good neighbour but around wealth taxes, and the importance of collecting the data on wealth taxes. I know that my own party certainly repeatedly has tried to have wealth taxes costed by the Department but it has refused to do it. The Department has stated it does not actually collect the data. It was the same with the private jet tax. We were told that the Department does not monitor the data on the number of private jets coming in and we are reliant on NGOs to do that. How important is it at a national level that we collect data about those very high-wealth individuals and their impact on our emissions? There have been calls for the CSO, to do it and for it and the EPA to work together to come up with a comprehensive toolkit. I would like to hear the witnesses' views on that.

Given what we are seeing in the news with the current COP, where it is being hosted and the influence of fossil fuel companies on negotiations and policy measures, we recently amended our lobbying legislation in Ireland. Sinn Féin brought forward amendments trying to tackle the issue of fossil fuel lobbying. I would be interested to hear how important it would be at a national level to be a leader on curbing fossil fuel lobbying. I have seen it myself at an EU level, where we had ExxonMobil - and we know its influence on muddying the waters around climate change and whether or not it is real - refusing to come before committees and undermining the work of academics on what it had been doing for decades in climate denial but yet, still having free access to powerful individuals at an EU level. I would be interested to hear how important it is that we start to tackle fossil fuel lobbying.