Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The delegation is very welcome. I had the privilege of being at Dublin Castle for part of the conference and would have liked to have spent a great deal more time there. Certainly, I picked up on the key points. We will have the opportunity to view the sections I missed at a later stage.

We referred at the beginning of the session to the heads of the Bill on climate change. The heads of the climate action and low carbon development Bill are being brought through the committee and we will report to the Minister after taking evidence from various sectors. I am the first to accept that there are flaws in the Bill, which this process will be helpful to consider and tease out. There are also very positive elements in the proposed legislation which have not been touched on. Even as it stands, the proposals will put us in the top three member states in terms of the provisions being made. They cover the targets we have accepted for 2020 and will automatically embed any future international agreements to which we sign up. They also ensure that there will be an annual report to the Dáil on progress being made by the Government to achieve international targets on climate change. The other key element is the independent committee which will provide independent commentary on whether Ireland is achieving its targets.

I do not mean to put anyone on the spot but I am anxious to hear specifics. When people talk about targets, to which elements of those targets are they referring? The previous Administration attempted to bring a Bill through and got caught up in a legal quagmire. It started to mention targets but said they would not be judicial but aspirational. The heads of the proposed Bill have taken the aspirational element out and created solid targets and annual reporting procedures to the Dáil.

If the delegates have read the Bill in detail, I would be interested in hearing solid proposals for these targets and changes and if there are weaknesses in the Bill, how we could strengthen it. That would be a very good starting point. This is the first group to appear before the committee to give evidence on the heads of the Bill.

The issue is complicated. While we can produce food in Ireland because our agriculture is grass-based, other countries which can produce higher quantities have a more detrimental effect on the climate. That is how I see the international aspect of this issue. There are areas where certain foods can be produced in a climate-beneficial way. Ireland is more suited to producing milk and beef than the rest of Europe where this is done in a closed system, whereby animals are housed. We need to work out what the balance should be. It is interesting to hear about the African experience.

I recently read a book about Bobby Kennedy. When he returned from Africa in the 1960s, he made a speech in the Senate in which he said the industrialised world was dieting to control obesity - that has not changed - while Africa suffers hunger and starvation. The problem of food security has not been addressed in the past 50 years because we still face starvation in certain areas. That has to be an element of the work on climate change.