Professor John Sweeney:

I will also reply to Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy.

There are 170 cases of litigation on climate grounds active in the world. It has become an increasing trend. I would prefer to see litigation not being resorted to because I would rather see the issue of climate change depoliticised as much as possible. One of the exercises we undertook in the build-up to the climate change Bill was making people accountable to the Department of the Taoiseach on the issue. It is clear that some of the frustrations Mr. Coghlan discussed resulted from a failure to break down silos. The Secretaries General will appear before the committee during its next module. It is important for the committee to find out from them why their Departments were dragging their feet on this issue and not delivering as promised. If the silos could be broken down institutionally by providing for accountability to either the Taoiseach or a body, it would help. My preference would be for Government administration to work internally in the first instance, but I suspect that there will always be a resort to litigation. The important Urgenda case will be going through the Dutch courts in the next four weeks. It will be a landmark decision for Europe on the basis of intergenerational equity for the young people who are pursuing the litigation.

To respond to the Deputy's first question, I will add to what Ms Sharkey stated. Based on my experience in Malawi, Zambia and other parts of central Africa, climate change issues are causing Ireland reputational damage there. We must face up to the fact that, while this is a country that had a tremendous reputation in the developing world, we are now undoing it. When a farmer asks what Ireland is doing about its emissions to help those countries and we say we are increasing them, it is unconscionable, given the emergency to which the UN Secretary General referred this week. This is an important consideration for the committee. Accountability to people elsewhere will become increasingly important for Ireland. We cannot shirk it by saying we will, first and foremost, look after ourselves. That would be a narrow, self-defined road to take.