Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)
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This COP is primarily focused on finance as opposed to mitigation. Is there scope for progress on the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance at the COP? Will Ireland's credibility be somewhat undermined because we went in with very strong fossil fuel divestment legislation? It is interesting that the fact this may need to be strengthened was mentioned. There is a discussion now about the fact that it allows for up to 10% of mixed investment to still be in fossil fuels but the Minister can lower it. In fairness, I have had constructive engagement with the Minister of State Deputy Calleary, and others on whether this could be lowered to 1% or 2%. At present, it allows for 10% of a mixed investment package to be in fossil fuels. The legislation allows for the Minister to reduce this. The figure is 15%. An audit was carried and 9% is the highest exposure that Ireland has in any investment group. Of course there is scope to reduce it from 15%. This is a legislative signal we could send as part of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance.

I am concerned about the negative signal we may have sent regarding liquefied natural gas as it is still in the planning Act. Liquefied natural gas is still listed as strategic infrastructure. Now, because of the other provisions in the Bill, it will have fast-tracked access through An Bord Pleanála, bypassing local authority level, when it comes to applications. This relates to importation. We have a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, Ireland has credit internationally for the fact that we banned fracking but we have new legislation that facilitates and fast-tracks the potential importation of fracked gas from other countries. This means we are contributing to the extraction of this particularly dirty fuel internationally. Will the witnesses comment on what steps we should or could be taking to strengthen our credibility? Do we need to start looking at addressing these anomalies? The fossil fuel divestment legislation originally brought forward by Deputy Pringle and supported throughout the Oireachtas was very good for its time. Could we look at strengthening this or look at how the provisions within it could allow us to divest further?