Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending to meet us. I wish them every success in the Presidency. I thank them for the information they are giving us. I have no doubt the Minister will prove he has had nothing to worry about when he is in the hot seat. I have no doubt he will prove to be very effective. I want to emphasise the importance of the flow of information back to the joint committee. As I understand the Minister and his officials will be very busy, I would like to know what plans are in place to inform the joint committee and to make us aware of the issues arising during the campaign.

I wish also to support Deputy Brian Stanley on agricultural issues, which are very important. Inevitably, we will reach a point where we must confront how we will balance the effects of climate change and the directives thereon and the need to feed the world's growing population. I am thinking particularly of Food Harvest 2020 and beyond to 2050 and the need to avoid penalising the Irish agricultural community, 96% of the production of which is exported. Irish farmers produce very high quality food which is recognised across the world. We must be aware of the need to break even in that context. There is a debate among scientists, some of whom say that global warming is determined by cycles and that over various periods of time, it changes. While I acknowledge the need to take action to preserve the climate, one must consider the Amazon where large tracts of forestry are being removed and corporate conglomerates such as Shell and BP are engaged in destructive practices which further their finances. That is having an effect on climate. We must also compare what the heavily industrialised nations are doing with the directives being enforced in Ireland. There is little we can do, but we suffer significantly by way of efforts to improve climate conditions. We must bear that in mind as an island nation.

The Minister mentioned the €7.2 billion fund for small-island nations. How much will we benefit from that? Will we benefit at all?