Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for his remarks. By the end of next week, we will have achieved all of the targets outlined to the committee last January, which does not often happen. This does not happen by accident but by way of a great deal of hard work by the Government and its officials. I take this opportunity to thank my officials who have worked exceptionally hard in the past year on a body of work on climate change and the sustainable development agenda not previously undertaken in the history of this State. There is often no recognition of the long hours worked by many people. In Doha, I witnessed the long hours, often up to 18 hours a day, many people worked. During the last 24 hours of the conference many people did not sleep at all in an effort to get the agreement over the line. Had it all gone wrong in Doha, I would be giving the bad news to this committee today and people would be disappointed and pessimistic about future outcomes. These issues are not resolved without a great deal of painstaking work by officials from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and other Departments. We should be proud of them in terms of the work they do and the long hours they put in to achieve many of the international agreements we often take for granted.