Mr. Conor O'Neill:

On the question of whether we are doing enough, it is a good question and a big one.

In all of the discussions on climate change in these committee rooms and in both Houses, climate justice is always raised. That represents a shift. A little more attention is being paid to the perspective we are trying to bring today. The test is that when you leave this road and get to the difficult stuff, such as the national carbon budget, do you raise it then? Do you raise it or is there a retrenchment into purely domestic politics and where the burden falls on this island, which is, of course, extremely important? The global justice perspective often gets lost at that point. It is heard at a committee meeting, specifically with development or international organisations, but is it there when the rubber really meets the road? I recall the testimony of Professor Kevin Anderson before this committee in January or February. Professor Anderson highlighted the uncomfortable truth that those carbon budgets, while extraordinarily challenging and more ambitious than anything that has gone before, are still far more than our fair share of the remaining global carbon budget. However, that perspective was barely present when the rubber met the road in the context of votes in the Dáil.

There are two operative questions to ask. Are we going to eat up more than our fair share of the remaining global carbon budget, as has happened for the past 100 years? The answer is "Yes". Are we providing the finance that has been promised, and is required in order to ensure that the burden does not fall on the world's poorest? As of yet, the answer is "No". These are the two crucial tests and they matter much more than any rhetoric. It is in the financial budgets and the carbon budgets that the real priorities lie. We commend the committee on giving us the chance to make this presentation and giving space to this angle, but please reflect it in the votes in the Chamber, because that is what really matters.