Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I find that to be really disappointing. This is the first Committee Stage debate I have been through. When we started out in the committee, and started reviewing the climate Bill initially, the recommendation from the Minister and the Department was that we would not have pre-legislative scrutiny. We pushed back against that and had very extensive pre-legislative scrutiny. The Minister will agree that the Bill and the amendments were much stronger as a result.

We are now at another point where the committee has a role. We should be allowed conduct that role and the Minister should engage with us in good faith. I am disappointed to hear that does not appear to be the case and we will not have that opportunity. This is really just a listening exercise for the Minister where we talk and he listens, but he still goes ahead with the Bill as it currently stands.