Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 27 June 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill 2016: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Kieran Bristow:

It is a matter of timing, ultimately. The purpose of the Bill, and everyone's intent, is that ultimately we would not lend to people who were investing in anything related to fossil fuels but clearly there is a question of timing because that would be cutting off someone's business straight away. The very wide definition is also an issue. In a number of cases, it is not so much that companies get cheaper funding as that they are getting funding that would not be available otherwise. It is not that it is cheaper than the banks but that these companies might not get them at all otherwise. I suspect that it is mostly a matter of timing rather than cutting something off immediately.

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