Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I am reading material on it. I have not come to a firm view one way or the other but I believe the genesis of just transition is about what happened in the coal and steel communities in Europe, the devastating effect of the closure of coal mines and various other mines the length and breadth of Europe, and the ability and capacity in those areas. I recall when I was going over as a union representative to the European Trade Union Confederation, ETUC, in the 1970s and 1980s hearing about the devastating effect of the closure of mines on Liège and Asturias. Where it has been decided under either international, European or national policy that we have taken a particular stance on the production and usage of fossil fuels, that requires the industries that produce them to close. A transition period is normally given for that but there is a rapidity about it now. Part of that justice argument is that those who are affected by it should not get thrown on the same slag heap as the product they were producing.