Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the committee heard from Professor John FitzGerald. In the course of an interesting presentation, he said there is a tension between listing a whole range of elements which we must regard. We now have 25. These will create a process within the Climate Change Advisory Council of having to trace these individual items. This could throw one open to fairly constant litigation versus trying to find a framework with guardrails along it which would prevent Ministers and Governments from ignoring their responsibilities. The latter would not tie up either the Climate Change Advisory Council or the Government in endless visits to the courts.

I wonder how our guests view that. To some degree, both their presentations present many new things to which we must have regard. I worry that every time we add another item to that list, we add to the woes of people who are trying to turn this into climate budgets and policies that will make a difference in our world.