Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

My Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, attended a significant conference on the impact of environmental issues on humanitarian situations. He was criticised to a certain extent for attending that conference but it was right for him to attend it because we are part of the group sponsoring the examination of and research into the effect of environmental issues on a deterioration in humanitarian situations, particularly in low-lying areas of the world.

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