Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for coming before the committee at such short notice, in fact, in the same week that he launched the all-of-Government action plan. Members are eager to discuss the measures in this plan with him. It is the most ambitious plan ever to come from Government addressing climate change and how to reach our targets.

The Minister has listened to us as a cross-party committee. He has adopted many of the committee's recommendations, some of them word for word which is quite unusual for any Government action plan. We all look forward to working with him over the weeks and months ahead to ensure that these measures are rolled out.

In the area of governance, the fact that the Minister has adopted our recommendation on governance is central to this whole plan, ensuring that we, as a standing committee, will have the oversight, in relation to implementation, accountability and transparency, for all Departments and State agencies in reaching their targets.

I have a question for the Minister. This is an all-of-Government plan and the Minister made reference to the fact that, as then Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, he had an all-of-Government action plan on jobs. What are the learnings from that process in 2011, where the Minister had to reduce unemployment from 16% - it is now down to below 5%? From working with the different Departments and pulling the different Secretaries General and officials together, what are the learnings from that process that the Minister could use in implementing this ambitious climate action plan?