Ms Karol Balfe:

On the industrialised agriculture, the report looks specifically at investment in the global south, not at Irish agriculture. It looks specifically at investments by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in the global south. Industrialised agriculture is defined in a number of ways. It is usually large-scale, mechanised agriculture that is controlled by a number of agribusinesses. It usually involves land use changes, whether monocrops, deforestation, or land grabs. It usually has a devastating impact on communities in the global south. There is high use of nitrogen fertilisers and large-scale emissions from methane or livestock.

In this report, we are not talking about the small-scale Irish farming. It looks specifically at investments in the global south, specifically those related to the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. We looked at the company for a similar reason. It was not a case of singling out a Chinese company. The research company looked at all investments over a particular period that had been made in fossil fuels. One was from this Chinese fossil fuel company that the strategic investment fund had invested €12 million in. It is significant because it comes under the remit of the strategic investment fund that the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act covers. While the assumption would be that all fossil fuels are excluded from the strategic investment fund, the transition is complex when we move away from oil, coal and gas. The nature of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act and the fact that the strategic investment fund has made that commitment to divest is what makes it significant. Over the period, these were the funds that emerged. It was not a case of us going for one company. It was just the investment that emerged during the research.