Mr. Paul Price:

What happened in the Citizens' Assembly was remarkable. Regular citizens really took on board what experts said. We should not underestimate the ability of citizens to do that, and that is hugely hopeful and helpful. Having that ongoing engagement, as Professor McMullin said, would engender hope and wider understanding. We cannot constrain things to the top-down. When I engaged with energy management in Dublin and looked at that side of things, it was only when the local community was facilitated to engage with the experts and take that on board directly, not filtered from the top down, that they made things happen. Things can be made to happen. What we are saying in carbon budget terms is that there are overall constraints and that reality lies within those constraints. That is what science is talking about. There are very difficult constraints, but if we face up to them, we can deal with them and have hope. However, that requires that early acting in all these ways, particularly in this engagement with people. As Deputy Cronin said, "Don't Look Up" provides some of those lessons, as we have all seen over the years.