Ms Niamh Garvey:

I thank Senator Higgins for another great question. She is right that the scientific case made for early action at the committee meetings this week was powerful. There is also an economic case for early action. In many areas of transition we see huge opportunities for win-wins or triple economic, environmental and social wins. The positives of transition that I mentioned are a very important part of the approach, without underestimating the significant challenges that are also involved.

I want to reinforce Dr. Moore's point on the fast and slow dimensions of just transition and participatory approaches. We saw clearly from the likes of the Citizens' Assembly that citizens provided with the right data and analysis who are facilitated to have a solutions focus can move relatively quickly to high degrees of consensus on potential solutions and potential ways forward. I want to challenge the idea of a just transition necessarily being slow. With regard to areas of economic support we are only in the very early stages of the work on agriculture. We will certainly be looking across a range of policy levers that are potentially supportive. There has been CAP reform and there already are significant changes there to strengthen the environmental element of CAP supports. It is important to acknowledge this.