Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the committee. I wish first to make an observation about Protocol 36 and the UK's ongoing concerns. It is interesting to see that although it is opting out of these 130 police and judicial co-operation measures, it is willing to rejoin 35 other measures on the same day. It gives another dimension to the debate on co-operation, in-out treaties and everything else.

The Minister of State mentioned climate change policy. He attended the meeting last month with the Taoiseach, so he knows that the previous Government agreed unsustainable targets in our climate change policy which would have been particularly damaging to Irish agriculture. The Taoiseach and the Minister of State were very strong on the need to reverse this target. How has this been received and what plans do they have to roll this out?

Also on a farming theme, there are concerns in certain sectors regarding the TTIP progression, as the Chairman has said. This is particularly the case in the beef sector, which is very important to this country which is a very important exporter of beef. What has been done to alleviate the concerns within that sector? As the Minister of State knows, Irish beef is of the highest quality, fully traceable, hormone free, and antibiotic free, unlike beef from the United States which has a regime of the use of hormones. There is concern about the talks in that respect.

On the energy union, the Minister of State mentioned "the importance of integrating peripheral and poorly connected member states into the internal energy market". As an island country, what particular concerns would we have? We have an interconnector with Scotland. Are there plans for one with France or is that the type of issue that would be discussed? There are particular energy issues relating to Russian gas supplies, but in this part of the world, as an island on the periphery, what plans and concerns does the Minister of State have?