Mr. John Purcell:

The key thing about climate change is that it must be made relatable, it must be made relevant and it must be achievable. Not too much of the time, but a large amount of the time, the public discourse at a national level and, indeed, an international level is on millions of tonnes, polar ice caps and the big macro picture. In order to change the behaviour of our citizens, we need to make it local, relevant and so on. In the early stages of the Covid pandemic, funding was made available whereby independent stations tendered, so to speak, for what initiatives they would undertake to increase public information. This ranged from daily health slots to financial advice, people telephoning with problems, programmes for mental health and all of that kind of thing. That could be replicated on climate change and those issues. Following local families that are leading the way in adapting to the climate emergency is another way.

On digital literacy and misinformation, we already support a number of Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, initiatives in that respect. However, it is addressed through programming and through teasing out the issues locally and so on. To do that, we will need resources and support because such programming is not commercially viable in its own right, but it is necessary to safeguard our democracy and increase the literacy of our citizens.