Dr. Rachel Widdis:

We will be very brief. Ms Clarke and I have agreed I will speak for the two of us, if that is okay. There are fines and a national authority that would enforce this. That requires it to be well-resourced with people who are knowledgeable because otherwise, it will not work. Significant fines based on turnover are required to enforce this.

These are very large companies; it has nothing to do with SMEs. The fines are against the top-level companies.

To give a sense of what civil liability is, it takes ten years to get a court to hear a case. During that time, most of the people may have died of asbestos or whatever the issue was. This is how difficult it is to take a case. My PhD on this issue focused on how to take a case such as this in Ireland. One cannot do it because we have so many barriers. The CSDD directive would level the playing field in order that these cases could be taken on and those barriers dismantled, not just here but across the EU. It is important.