Mr. David Rossiter:

I wish to thank the Senator for some of the points she has raised, particularly on the justice side of things. On the question around supporting rather than hindering others, there are a couple of issues the coalition has previously talked about, in particular policy coherence regarding tax. We know that when multinationals shift profits from the developing world to other countries, it means those developing countries do not have that tax to spend on building their infrastructure. Ireland could look at how to build out that coherent policy to ensure developing countries get their fair share of tax. Some of the members of Coalition 2030 have talked a lot about that.

We as a country can support others through fossil fuel phase-out. Linking back to a previous point around LNG, there is an international move for a treaty that would phase out fossil fuels in the same way that we look at nuclear weapons. The Irish Government could look to endorse a treaty similar to that. This is something that small island nations have already called for. COP is a particular treaty. Our Government has prioritised working closely with some of those countries. Our colleagues in Action Aid who are also part of the coalition have raised the issue of subsidies for fossil fuels and private finance and subsidies. In the most recent report, research found that in the seven years since the Paris Agreement was signed, banks in the global north have provided $3.2 trillion to fossil fuel activities in the global south.

The fossil fuel sector has received an annual average of €438.6 billion in publicly-financed subsidies between 2016 and 2023 so it has certainly done a lot of research on how we in Ireland and the developed world can try to make it a more even playing field to help developing countries also achieve some of the indicators set out in the SDGs.