Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. Different officials representing Departments, including the Minister's Department, have appeared before the committee from way back. Their attitude was that this process does not mean anything and does not have an impact on their work. Is that still the attitude of the Department? If things can change in the space of a couple of weeks, who is to say it will not change and fall back again in the future? What basis is there to say this climate action will continue? The Minister needs to step up and do an awful lot more to deal with climate action. I am worried whether the commitment is there from Government and Departments. It has been starkly evident that all of the Departments to appear before the committee consider this to be a nuisance rather than anything else. The Minister's Department was one of the most stark in this regard and that is worrying. How does the Minister feel about that and how will that progress?

Who is actually going to co-ordinate this at Government level? Will it be the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment? Who will take ownership of it? The Secretary General from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine stated in here that methane was not a climate gas. Will that be the cross-governmental attitude in the future? Who will deal with that? That is important and needs to be clarified before we go on.