Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

That is a bit of a worrying response. I am sure the Minister of State understands why. It all sounds very good - the Government says it is committed to loss and damage and doing good work and so on - but the Minister of State did not answer the question and the language contained in the answer, which I presume was prepared by civil servants, points towards the Irish Government not pushing for this fund to be 100% grant-based or for it to be available for all countries in the global south impacted by climate change and not just those described as "the most vulnerable countries". What is happening is nothing more than a cynical game of divide and rule that seeks to sow divisions among the countries of the global south in order to delay for as long as possible the establishment of a loss and damage fund because the longer it takes to set it up, the lower the contributions from rich countries and the wealthy corporations responsible for this crisis will be. We know that 100 western corporations produced 71% of global greenhouse gases since 1988. They have to be made pay for that in a way that benefits all of those affected, which is people in the global south.

See this speech in context