Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to make sure I am being consistent in what I am saying. In the proposed draft legislation there is a specific mention of the habitats directive and the birds directive. We also mention the environmental impact assessment directive and the strategic environmental assessment directive. We refer more generally to the requirements of relevant Acts of the European Union. Please allow me to check if there would be a problem in adding in the Water Framework Directive and EU air quality directive. We might have to include a rider in words such as "and subsequent follow-on European agreements" or something like them. My only concern is that we will have outdated legislation in five years' time. From my experience, what we normally would do is say EU directives would be taken account of and named in regulations at a later stage. There are some directives named in the legislation, but we have not included others. I want to understand why that is the case. Let us have a complete and proper list. If the Deputy is okay with it, I can bring forward such an amendment on Report Stage. If we are mentioning the habitats directive and the birds directive, I see no reason we should not mention the other directives to which Deputy Eamon Ryan is referring. If there is a good reason for not doing so, I will provide it, but if there is not, we will include them.

In terms of national plans and policies, it is different issue. If we are upgrading or changing them, that is something of which we need to take account. With regard to the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, we may well have a new Act dealing with climate change in the years ahead that potentially will be much more ambitious. We do not, therefore, want to be stuck with a reference to the old legislation and to have to come back to the committee with a small amendment that would take weeks to get through. I would like to have a more generalised but, at the same time, quite ambitious reference to climate change and moving towards a low-carbon society, as opposed to a low-carbon economy only. We will look at the directives to see if we can include a more complete list and whether we can or cannot add them to the list or to regulations linked with this legislation.