Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking what I had proposed to the OPC and coming back with an amendment. Of course, I had originally two individual amendments on this but the OPC found a better place to do it with one amendment.

As the Minister said, it is in section 69, which provides for AE provider schemes and risk levels. I am firmly of the opinion, as the impact of climate change will have in the coming decades begins to dawn on people's consciousness, they will realise that there are investments that are very bad ideas in the medium term. For example, as I stated on Committee Stage, people should not be investing in beach-front properties in the Florida Keys. That has not a great lifetime in terms of potential future investment.

I am glad to see the Minister taking this on board. As she stated, this is becoming more of an established custom and practice. It is unfortunate that we have to look at this in this way, but we know that our climate is changing and that this will have impacts on economies, investments and societies across the globe in the coming decades. I am glad that we are including in legislation that is built to withstand the test of time - I would hope for a 50-year timeframe before this legislation is unpicked substantially - a climate lens and that we are beginning to acknowledge in legislation that the climate is changing, that this will have an impact on our economies and societies and that we had better start laying the foundations for figuring out how we cope with that in the here and now.

I thank the Minister. It is great to see a little bit of work done by the backbenches coming through and into the final shape of the Bill. I thank the Minister for the constructive engagement on it.

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