Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a useful section as it specifies the matters that I, as Minister, and the Government of the day need to take into account in performing our functions in respect of the adaptation frameworks and sectoral adaptation plans. One of the more unusual features of the Bill is the prominence and priority it gives to adaptation matters, which is only right, given the potential impacts of climate change on the State in decades to come. We have seen some of those impacts already. They include more severe weather events and increased rainfall, which we certainly had in May, with the potential for greater incidence of flooding and so on. We have seen the impact that has had in recent years. Accordingly, the Bill provides a comprehensive institutional framework to gather the capacity of the State to meet the adaptation challenges head-on and I do not believe deleting this section is appropriate.