John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the witnesses for their reports and contributions. I practised as a psychotherapist and am always interested in the psychological aspects of this. It struck me in recent years it is like the planet is suffering from a lot more than this now. When we are under threat, what do we do? We either fight, flee or freeze. There is a huge amount of denial going on. A lot of it is from fear. There is a huge amount of fear and part of the fear becomes denial - "It can't happen. It could never happen." - until we get another jolt, whether a hurricane, tornado or flood. Then there are people facing it. I would be interested in any work done on it. This represents the pulling-up of the drawbridge, almost. America is pulling up the drawbridge and will have the moat surrounding it. That is the way some of the world seems to have gone and be going. It is an interesting piece that is not being looked at. It is not because I am saying it but the psychological aspect has struck me from time to time. When you are threatened with annihilation, how do you respond? I do not know how that observation helps but that is my first point.

A practical thing is to ask what makes the Scandinavians so good at this. That is it.