Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will finish on the other issue. I agree, and think I said in my earlier response, that the target of public financing should be on areas like enhancing electricity grids and enhancing administrative and regulatory capacity. Our job is not necessarily to fund or finance energy companies. There are certain instances such as climate mitigation, with a small farmer or even at a more local level, with people in a house who have to burn wood or charcoal for the fire or cooking, where we should invest so that that family does not have to worsen their local environment and does not have the ill-health effects that come from that. Our public finances should be targeted at the most vulnerable in the same way that we try to target the loss and damage funding at the most vulnerable. Part of that involves investing in the capability of developing countries to avail of private finance. That is investing in their State and their local community. That is key. I have heard some make the case that it is just about the amount of public finance in grant aid. That is important but framing it in that way alone is doing a disservice to the poorest people in the world.