Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Liz McManus; she and her team have put a huge amount of work into putting together not only a framework document for a climate change Bill but also a Bill itself, and this is what we are debating today. I was in Copenhagen last year, as was the Minister of State, and he will know there is now understanding among all political parties of the responsibility of mainstream parties, large and small, to play their part in ensuring climate change as an issue and a challenge remains central to a government policy regardless of who is in government. It is unfortunate that despite the fact that prior to the conference in Copenhagen last year we spoke about the need for the Government to produce a climate change Bill, or at least a draft Bill, to try to improve Ireland's credibility and negotiation position as an EU member, we still have not seen that legislation a year later. I do not want to introduce a party political negative element to this debate because that has not been the spirit of it so far-----

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