Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)

I thank everyone for their contributions and for preparing for this meeting. I appreciate the witnesses taking the time to come before the committee. I should probably declare some past interest in that I used to be a consultant to EI client companies and have worked for IDA client companies. I have some familiarity with the area, although there is no financial interest since I entered politics.

Many of the provisions here are very welcome, in particular the idea of the green grants. Separately, I know it is kind of an addendum to the Bill, but from an environmental perspective the detergent regulation is very welcome. In the interests of doing the pre-legislative scrutiny, I will take the approach of scrutinising closely and perhaps I will ask questions that are more hard-hitting or more incisive. This is just so that I can understand all the different bits and pieces. It is not that I decry the legislation or anything like that. I think it is a very positive step.

I have some minor questions and two major ones. Maybe with my first speaking slot I will stick to the minor questions. Overarching this, I want to focus on transparency, accountability and unintended consequences of the legislation. On the threshold amounts, was any international comparison done? How were they arrived at and are the amounts enough?