Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a couple of points. I spent 12 years working full time on behavioural change in regard to climate and human rights issues in the school and college environment. What I discovered is that it was the lecturers, parents and teachers who needed the education piece far more than the children themselves. In some ways, it might be the same in Ireland when it comes to the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, ISME and the LEOs. B Corps, Open Doors and other such organisations are the ones that should probably be offering the training to people who are good at using the words "sustainable", "climate", "human rights" and all of that. Talk is cheap, but if one does not have a deep understanding of how it affects people or how one can effect change in one's business or daily life then one does not care. Through my work in behavioural change through education I have seen how it completely changes people and their attitude. It empowers them and makes them feel part of the solution instead of pretending they know what they are talking about. They continue to hire people who also pretend they know what they are talking about. There is too much of that going on.

We do not always get it right, even with significant increases in Government funding for initiatives relating to human rights and climate. The money does not always go to the people who deeply understand the issues. I do not know what the witnesses would like to say about that but it is definitely a concern of mine. I do not consider that all the money is going to the right people in the right places. I see people getting jobs who do not have any background in human rights or climate understanding whatsoever but they are in the right place at the right time, they have the right BA or letters after their name, or they know the boss. Something is going wrong there. It is not just a funding issue. That is a hugely important thing.

I would also like to know if the witnesses have any ideas about clear labelling. People are very cynical now and they find it very hard to trust anybody about anything. Branding is a huge thing. I trust B Corp for instance but I would not trust Guaranteed Irish. I do not know if I even trust GIY as I do not think it uses native Irish seeds. There is a lot of cynicism out there, even among people like me who try to do their best to get it right every day. As we also know, it is challenging to be an ethical shopper, an ethical dresser and everything else. We are going to have to simplify systems in some way. I would love to see groups like the ones before us coming together with simple ways of labelling, marketing and advertising the great work they are doing. Open Doors is very impressive. Social Enterprise Ireland is also very good. Business in the Community is brilliant. Most laypeople have no idea. People are too busy. Shopping is complicated and they do not have time. Unless we simplify systems we are just wasting time.

As Deputy Bruton said, we have had loads of different groups and enterprise groups in about climate and sustainability. I would love to see them all in the one room on the same day and to really thrash out the issue. I would also love to see them in the room with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to see where we are going, because we all seem to be working in silos despite throwing loads of money at it. I would love to have the opinions of the witnesses on that. I will stop now as I have three and a half minutes remaining, which works out at approximately a minute for each group.