Mr. John McCarthy:

I am not the owner of that memorandum and I did not put it to Government but I can certainly follow up with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Met Éireann is active in the climate area in several respects, especially in research. It has taken climate and meteorological observations over many years and looked at them, analysed them and tried to draw out scientific evidence to show how weather patterns have changed and continue to change.

There has been some discussion of whether an element of climate communication could be incorporated into the weather forecasts routinely broadcast on television. I am unsure that is the right way to get such information across, although I acknowledge that we must communicate it somehow. The communication of the importance of individual behaviour and behavioural patterns and the consideration of how to influence behavioural change must form part of the climate agenda. I am open to consideration of the role that Met Éireann could play in that regard.

I raised the issue of the television weather forecast in that regard because it is a two-minute or two and a half minute broadcast and the audience it attracts very much wants to know what the weather will be in the coming days. If Met Éireann were to take on a role in respect of communicating a climate change message, it would need people with better communications skills than mine to ensure that it would deliver what we want it to deliver. Alternatively, an engagement specifically on climate issues and which would be promoted could be broadcast each month or on another basis. Our colleagues in Met Éireann deliver the weekly farming forecast each Sunday which grabs the attention of farmers, who engage with it because it gives them perspective on the weather for the coming week. We need to tease out those sorts of issues.

Met Éireann is very active in the climate space and will continue to be part of the process of building the evidence base and trying to understand changing weather patterns and how they are manifesting themselves. It is doing a significant amount of work on climate attribution, which is still in its early stages of development, in terms of trying to understand the extent to which various and changing weather patterns may be attributable to particular climate phenomenon. It is active in the area of climate change and will continue to be so.

Did I neglect to answer any of the Deputy's questions?