Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests and my colleagues who have covered most of the areas already. I will deviate slightly. There has been a lot of talk about sustainable energy, renewables and so on. Recently, a relative of mine purchased an electric car. I believe the carbon footprint of manufacturing that car would not be any different from that of manufacturing a fossil fuel petrol or diesel car. We must start looking at the next issue, which is the electric aspect of it. The car does approximately 30 km before the battery needs a recharge and then it switches over to petrol. I understand the vehicle is more expensive to run on petrol once the electric side is gone. That is a matter of concern to me.

Underpinning the electric side of the vehicle is the fact that it has batteries. There is no doubt that the batteries are made using materials that have been mined, in some places by children. I am not so sure that health and safety is foremost on the minds of those involved in mining for cobalt. When we in this wealthy part of the world talk about saving the planet, what are the human costs of what we are doing for poorer parts of the world? Are we once again going to places like Africa, which were raped of their resources for years, in order to feed the machine in the western world? Are we at this again? Is that what we are doing? When we talk about renewables and reducing our carbon footprint, I wonder what the cost will be to the humans involved in this. Who is paying the price for us reducing our carbon footprint? I would like the witnesses to address that.

When we consider sustainable fuels, are we growing crops purely to harvest them for fuel for the wealthy of this world? If so, how does this rest with half the planet starving?

Maybe it is slightly outside the witnesses' brief for today but I would welcome their view on that.