Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The key point on the attribution is that we are all policy-makers around this table and we are of a certain age range. There are those who are much younger than us who are ahead of us. There are also those who are in our age range and maybe older, who are voters. They are consumers. There is the causal link between weather patterns, the effects of climate change and the heating of the planet which is attributable to human behaviour. If such link were more widely understood it could influence how they make decisions about such matters as how they consume energy and the type of car they drive. Somewhere there is a role for Met Éireann to link the two, for example, where the weather is changing as a result of planet heating that were we to do X it would have a bearing.

Deputy Heydon made the point about the daffodils in bloom in January. We were going into the Christmas period at 12°. I asked people older than myself if they ever remembered Christmases of 12° in their living memory. The answer was "No". These were people in their 70s. That is not to say it has not happened in the past. That is as a result of the heating of the planet. It has to be, if the science is to be believed. How one links behavioural change with that fact is where Met Éireann has a role to play. The Chairman will forgive me, if I have gone on too long.