Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The alarming thing is that the proposal is to bring this back to level 1. We take a process that took years and go back to the drawing board. Those are years we do not have. We are at the end of the ten hottest years on record. It is frankly patronising to the public that the word “simplification” gets used again and again when what is being done is clearly deregulation and a move away from sustainability and acting on climate. Whatever the threats to Europe we hear about, let us be clear what the threats to the world and Europe are if we fail to act on climate. The idea that we would be competitively chasing the US, which has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, and setting the world on fire to do so is not acceptable.

I want two answers from the Minister of State because I did not have them. What is he doing about the process in terms of the idea of it reopening to level 1? He said he supports the CSDDD. Will the Irish State continue to implement the CSDDD rather than putting things on ice until this new revised version comes through, which could take years? Will we continue to give rewards to the good companies rather than reward the laggards that have failed to act?