Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

If I asked him about the climate change Bill on the Order of Business, I would be entitled to get an answer. I am simply asking when the promised climate change Bill will be produced by the Government. I would expect him to know what stage of preparation the legislation is at. I would also expect him to know what is happening with climate change impact assessments. We were told such assessments would be taken into consideration as part of all Cabinet decision-making. I assume that is happening. Is the Taoiseach saying that no climate change impact assessments are being done in advance of Government decisions on various matters, such as infrastructural investment and economic affairs? I am not asking for the detail of particular assessments. I am simply asking how such assessments are carried out. If the Taoiseach knows nothing about it, I presume nothing is being done about it, like many other things in the programme for Government, and therefore there are no climate change impact assessments. It is all very well for the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to go to Copenhagen and give a lot of rhetorical guff about climate change, when they are doing very little about it at home.

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