Dr. Liam Heaphy:

Deputy Kenny's point was very interesting. Under one aspect, there is a discussion of scientific literacy and that would link to misinformation and debates on that topic in the Dáil recently. That starts early with explaining in school, as is done now, climate science, its history and how it is evolving in relation to our goals. With regard to the other aspect of the political goals, while it is our task as citizens to be involved in that, that does not necessarily emerge from the science itself. Perhaps there is not any clear and distinct domain of science that is separate from society and politics. They work together and influence each other.

There are also broader goals that come into discussions with individuals about what changes they can make. These go into wider debates on resource security in the future, multilateralism, global development, and greater outreach and effectiveness of our programmes abroad in trying to bring the rest of the world through the processes we are going through, struggling at times but also having relative success at times. It is about trying to ensure it is a collective process and a big part of that is relying on all the rest of the world to be on the same page. Of course there is also well-being and biodiversity.

The point on outreach was addressed already. It is a job for all of us as citizens to be involved in outreach. Perhaps in certain aspects, such as retrofitting, which is an area my colleagues looked at a lot, it is about scale, for example, the Dingle Peninsula, and also national scale. It is about trying to move from appealing to homeowners or individuals to looking at places, areas, urban blocks and streets. We could probably deliver a lot more and advance a lot further by reaching out at multiple scales, rather than just strings that one pulls down to get certain changes done to the house, the car or a lifestyle. These are things that happen across a community.