Dr. Diarmuid Torney:

To follow-up briefly on the question, I am a social scientist and director of the DCU centre for climate and society. We are a cluster of social science and humanities scholars. Historically, a lot of the funding has gone to science, technology and engineering disciplines. This is rebalancing now but within the arts, humanities and social sciences, it is true the social sciences get more than their fair share. There are multiple inequities in how the funding is distributed but there are pockets of important research.

I mentioned our conference last week on climate and society. One of the highlights was the closing reflection delivered by Jane Clarke, a poet from County Wicklow. It was a wonderful way to end the day and it emphasised the importance of the humanities and the arts for all of us in the room.