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

Structures are being established to help countries to draw down that fund. The process has been quite slow. A small number of projects have been approved but we hope that between now and the meeting in Poland at the end of the year, there will be a lot more progress. The process has been frustrating for potential recipients of the funds, which are to promote the green economy while assisting with mitigation and adaptation. It was hoped that there would have been further progress to date. As part of our Council conclusions in June, we agreed an EU-member state adaptation policy on climate change. I hope this will trigger additional resources through various EU programmes for member states. I hope this will give some impetus to those who wish to draw down funds, through local authorities or national agencies.

On Senator Keane's point, targets have become a little bit of an obsession. Legally binding EU targets have the force of law and are sufficient. Ireland, in step with all other EU member states, can meet EU binding targets. That is why we are part of the Union. We want to be among the leaders and progressive member states on this issue, and we are. Objectives have been mentioned in regard to the sectoral roadmaps but we should wait to see what the other Ministries come up with to deal with their own sectoral roadmaps. They will have to underpin their objectives with policies.

The accounting methodologies are always a subject of debate. We want to see a transparent means of accounting so that every member state will know exactly, in a harmonised and standardised way, the objectives it must meet and the means of meeting them without proceeding in a way that might lack openness and transparency, as evident in regard to other policy areas.