Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Apologies I could not be at the meeting earlier but I read the opening statement and followed as much of the meeting as I could. First, I thank the witnesses for their work and for the work of the citizens' assembly. It is really vital if we are to avoid the kind of cliff edge that was spoken about, that we need drastic change to avoid a sixth mass extinction event which would have a devastating impact on human civilisation.

I will start with understanding how we got here. The science is clear, and has been so for quite a while in terms of the ecological crises we face. Therefore, we have not gotten here because we did not know enough. Sometimes, people who are opposed to taking action on the biodiversity or climate crises like to say, "Well, we have to bring the people with us", the implication being that the people are kind of slow or foot-dragging on these issues and have to be persuaded and brought along, etc. From the experience of the citizens' assembly, when the people, or a representative sample of the people, were presented with the evidence, what we learned was that the people are in favour of doing what is necessary. Understandably, it makes sense that the people are in favour of doing what is necessary to avoid biodiversity crisis and to get on top of it. That is quite clear, is it not?