Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Were the witnesses surprised by the agreement that came out of the Paris meeting? There had been suggestions that no leadership would be shown. Do they think that the chairing of the meetings by the French was helpful?

We have seen some of the disastrous consequences of climate change, such as the flooding in Ireland, but that pales in comparison with what is happening in less developed countries. During our visit to Tanzania we visited a project in which Irish Aid was involved in training local people to train other local people to use less water and other resources when growing rice.

The impressive point was that the rice output in some of those areas doubled. Would the witnesses see that type of leadership - namely, getting local people to teach local people - as a role for Irish Aid in the future?

It is widely accepted that the State will not reach the EU’s 20-20-20 targets of a 20% reduction in emissions from the non-emissions-trading sectors. What does the State need to do on this? I am critical of this whole idea of developed states using the allowances of the least developed countries, LDCs, and trading emissions. It is not doing anything for the planet and we are just codding ourselves. Where do the witnesses see leadership coming from in the future after the Paris conference? Would they be concerned about some of the outbursts from some of the US presidential candidates on global warming? Several elections ago in this country, all political parties promised to be carbon-neutral, but we do not talk about that any more. Is there a need for more awareness about this among the general public?

Community energy projects are part of the answer, but people have to buy into them. We have not been good at this. What is the next step and what do we need to be doing over the next five and ten years on this? Everyone is in favour of wind energy but no one wants a wind farm beside them. Should we be locating these out at sea rather than beside people’s homes?

Fracking was also referred to. One of the reasons oil prices are cheap is that it is an attempt to stop the development of this energy source. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, is coming down the tracks, along with the investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, process which will allow companies to take on countries. Is this a concern, particularly with fracking? For example, Lone Pine Resources is aiming to sue the Canadian Government for $250 million in response to a moratorium placed on fracking in Quebec.

Everyone is in favour of reforestation, but some of the regulations from the EU make it difficult for Coillte engage in it. Is there a need for changes to the regulations?