Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

What is the point in having a Cabinet sub-committee on climate change? It does not meet, nothing is happening, there is no Bill and there are no results. At this stage the Taoiseach might consider abandoning the project of having a Cabinet sub-committee dealing with climate change but never meeting.

I ask the Taoiseach to explain what the hell is going on. When we had a debate in this House on climate change we were promised, and, indeed, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government subsequently tweeted that day, that heads of the Bill would be published on the following Tuesday, 13 November. All we got was a tweet; we did not get heads of the Bill. Would the Taoiseach tell us exactly why the heads of the Bill did not materialise? Is it true, as has been said, that the Taoiseach's Department is holding up this legislation?

While he is replying, would he also indicate, because I have been trying to find out and it seems the Taoiseach is only person who might answer this, who is responsible for the programme for Government commitment to ensure a climate change impact assessment is taken into account for all Cabinet decision making? When I put down a parliamentary question to any Minister, or even the Taoiseach, I am told that I will not get a reply because it impinges on the principles of Cabinet confidentiality. The Government has a commitment in the programme for Government but it will not tell us anything about it because the Government is protected by the bulwark of Cabinet confidentiality. That is not proper Government. Maybe the Taoiseach would answer the question of who is supposed to be doing this and how is it being done.

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