Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is racking up a large number of amendments for Report Stage. It is good to have the collaborative spirit back after the brief interregnum of the past two hours. I have several questions. Given the enormous priority the Government has given to the climate Act, the carbon budgets and the sectoral targets, and given that during the process of producing the Bill much of the discussion was happening, how does the Minister of State explain, unless I am missing it, that nowhere of any significance in section 19 or in the other sections relating to the planning framework is there explicit mention not only of climate but also of carbon budgets or of the Act itself? That would seem to be a glaring omission. Even though this is meant to be one of the key features of what the Government is doing, and so it should be, it is taking Opposition Committee Stage amendments - and Government backbench amendments; apologies to the Cathaoirleach who has tabled very good amendments on behalf of Green Party - and stating that it will look at matters in the context of the national planning framework. Given how significant the national planning framework is for all of the cascading plans, as the Minister of State phrased it, this seems to be one of the areas where there is a glaring omission.

I wonder whether the people holed up in the previous Attorney General's office even understood that there is a climate emergency, let alone being aware of the importance of stipulating it explicitly in the Bill. I welcome the Minister of State is saying, at this very late stage, that he is willing to look at it.