Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is the language of the just transition. It is important for us to acknowledge as a committee that recommendation No. 7 speaks of making proper provision for the protection of the rights of the workers impacted. There was an overwhelming mandate. Today's interaction has been very useful and we are now beginning to develop the language of the just transition and tease it out. Does the witness agree with the language of the just transition, what it means and how it would be populated in terms of funding, specifically the types of structures set up? It is very much an iterative process but there must be some formal process and the Government must be a key stakeholder in that. It will take pounds, shillings and pence. If we are talking about the social protection element of the just transition, the State and the Government will have to fund that activity. Taking the Spanish example of transition, €250 million was spent, which is not an insignificant amount of money. We are talking about a serious funding pot that will have to be made available by the Government if we are talking about decarbonising the economy. Does the witness agree with the proposition?