Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going to stay away from the Taoiseach and politics. I am looking at risk assessments here and specific mention was made of Brexit. I actually think that Brexit offers opportunities, as has been acknowledged by many people, but that is for another day.

This is the last Dáil in which to take any meaningful step to stop climate change. The 2006 Stern report, which I am sure the witnesses have read, is a landmark study on the economics of climate change. It clearly pointed out in 2006 that it would be 20 times cheaper to prevent further climate change. The London School of Economics, not known to be a particularly radical organisation, published a paper in 2015 that concluded that the net economic benefits to countries from tackling climate change continue to outweigh the costs. I could quote many other groups, none of them radical, arguing that we must tackle climate change and that it is major risk to economies and to economic productivity on many levels. Where is that built in here? Where is the Department alerting the Government to this risk?