Ms Caoimhe de Barra:

On the first question, we believe it is important targets are set in this legislation and that they are not adequately addressed in the legislation as currently drafted. We all know that what needs to be managed must be measurable. We believe that if Ireland is committed to meeting existing and future international targets it is then hard to argue against the setting of specific targets which are measurable in our national legislation.

On credibility as a development partner, this goes to the heart of development. As I mentioned at the outset, for Trócaire climate change is the context within which we work. We work in countries in eastern and southern Africa, which are badly affected by climate change. This is not a matter of short-term variability in climate but of long-term destructive climatic changes. For example, when I was in Malawi recently - I have previously worked and lived there for many years - I met a woman who had harvested her crop in April. She has four months between that harvest and her hitting what previously was a two to three months hungry season. Women and men in developing countries are feeling the impact of climate change. It is literally costing them the lives of their children and making them vulnerable beyond the scope of our imagination. Ireland is a small nation with a proud record and history of supporting developing countries. Our action on this will be a reflection of our continued commitment to that.

Policy coherence is important because work on the development side can be undermined by work in other areas of government policy. We believe it is important that the White Paper in terms of its content, contribution and commitment to policy coherence for development is taken as a core policy piece by the Irish Government. We are aware that these discussions are not easy and that there are trade-offs that need to happen between different areas of Ireland's interest. We believe, however, that an over-arching contribution to the global good is not only good for developing countries and impoverished populations within them, but ultimately is good for the population in Ireland. This is part of the reason we believe that policy coherence is an extremely important element of this and propose that this is taken seriously by the committee.