Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is welcome to hear that we are likely to see the heads of the climate change Bill before Christmas. There would have been a difficulty with our credibility if we had not kept to the timeline.

What happened in Doha cannot be separated from the work that will be done during the Irish Presidency. The Minister said he had bilateral talks with many European environment Ministers. Will there be a common approach to the Rio+20 conference in June? Will a united approach be taken towards countries such as the United States, China and India? Clearly, it was not possible to move the agenda forward significantly in Doha. Did the Minister view this as a source of disappointment because I expected more progress to be made? Will he tell us how progress will be made between the European Union and the other countries involved and how we can use our Presidency to this end?

This has been creeping along at a snail's pace. Europe is one of the parts of the world which is taking it more seriously. We have only one planet and must use what influence we have to get buy-in from countries which are not moving as fast as they should.

The question arises of the approach to local government in the overall domestic agenda. Significant changes are due in the context of the Presidency. A number of extra staff are being brought in to deal with the Presidency. Is the team fully in place? Is there likely to be interference in the work of the Department during the period or will it be possible to do the two in tandem?