Mr. Alan Moore:

I thank the Minister of State. I believe he covered the matter quite well. We already have legislation in place that implements the ABS regulation, which was introduced in 2014 to give effect to this protocol across the European Union. The requirement on us is to produce a statutory instrument in Ireland to give effect to matters of national concern relating to that regulation. Our legislation has been in place since 2019. Once we ratify the protocol, we are free to go ahead and formally implement it at a level at which we can be considered a party to it, can take part in meetings of the parties at UN level and can involve ourselves in discussions on how the protocol will move forward and be used to deal with issues that are, perhaps, tangential to it. As the Minister of State indicated, over the next 12 to 18 months we will be putting in place the process for implementation, the establishment of working groups, the holding of discussions with stakeholders and so forth.