Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Doran for his opening statement. I thank all our guests for their considered perspectives on the work of the citizens' assembly with respect to the rights of nature and the right to a healthy environment.

I will ask members to indicate now. The clerk will take a list. We have plenty of members in the room and we have plenty of guests here as well. I want to give everybody a fair opportunity so I am going to be really strict on the five minutes. That is five minutes for questions and answers together. I ask our guests to be as brief as they can in their answers.

I might go first. I will pick up briefly on Dr. Ryall's contribution. The first part of her statement talked about existing environmental law. This is actually something we were going to get to in a later session but seeing as she is here and has something to say about it, I might ask her to elaborate on how we have been failing to apply existing environmental law. Perhaps if we did live up to what is already on the Statute Book, we would not be embarking on such an onerous task as a constitutional amendment, as was proposed by the citizens' assembly.

My next question is for either Dr. Kelleher or Dr. Dobbs. Point 13 in their statement referred to potential concerns including weighting environmental rights above other fundamental rights and-or creating a tool that could be abused. They say this can be managed. Certainly I have heard real concern about a proposed constitutional amendment that would provide that of right. What are the impacts on everybody who works within nature and depends on it for their livelihood and so on?