Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Fine, but it was still an unfortunate choice for Mr. Watt. I know schools where the kids are trying to get money from the Government to invest in solar power and they are knocking on doors and nobody is listening to them. I would welcome the establishment of an independent overarching body that would listen to communities and put pressure on officials such as Mr. Watt and Mr. Moran to say that their spending decisions are wrong. They are not doing enough to address the urgency of the situation and we have to start tackling climate change in a different way. Mr. Watt quoted the Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, which states, "Climate change is the greatest market failure the world has ever seen". Yet at no stage does his briefing document move outside the parameters of the free market and market mechanisms. He referred to cost abatement, carbon pricing, market discovery but presents no idea about how to tackle this except within the parameters of the market that has failed us, in the first instance. The fact that their submissions arrived late made it difficult for me and my staff to challenge them in a more comprehensive way. It is an impediment to the work of this committee that we continue to receive submissions at the last hour. Nevertheless, they are hollow, shallow and do nothing to deal with the urgency of the situation.

I ask Mr. Watt to answer that whether he has he read the IPCC report and whether he is aware of the urgency of the situation we are facing.