Mr. Eoin Moran:

I thank the Deputy for her questions.

I want to make it very clear that Met Éireann takes the whole question of climate change very seriously and has underpinned the information available to Ireland to manage, adapt and put mitigation strategies in place. I mean this quite sincerely; Met Éireann is part of the international scientific community that since the 1900s has been monitoring and taking the pulse of the planet on a minute-by-minute, hourly and daily basis. It has contributed to the detection of climate change and on an ongoing basis it provides the definitive reference analysis of the state of the climate. It has initiated the national programme to provide climate projections for the country. It was the first scientific organisation to do that for the country. I will be brief on this. National meteorological services provide that strategic outlook on a scientific basis. They provide long-range plans to meet the requirements of the country from a scientific point of view. On that basis, Met Éireann has had the view that climate change is a great challenge for the last several decades. It is a huge challenge for this country, and Met Éireann has responded strategically to meet that challenge and to service the Irish public and Irish citizens in that manner.

In regard to some the articles that have been referred to and some of the questions that have been asked, of course it is true that for the last several years the public has been quite rightly seeking explanations for the increased frequency of extreme weather events we are all experiencing. I can tell the committee that these extreme weather events are putting us to the pin of our collar. In terms of communications, we are at the front line when it comes to climate change. The introduction of weather warnings and our storm naming mechanism were initiatives taken by Met Éireann. We are at the vanguard in communicating the impacts of extreme weather and the changes therein caused by climate change. There is no ambiguity. We have always had the position that the climate is changing. In regard to the communication that we provide for our forecasters, of course we have to give guidance on how to speak to journalists. This is because within the language of climate change there can often be some confusion.

I wish to clarify that our role is to provide climate information to the public. Again, this is to support users, decision-makers, policymakers and politicians to help them to make their decisions. I note that this is also to support the wider climate action agenda as co-ordinated and managed by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.