Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank Deputy Catherine Murphy for introducing this legislation and I thank Members on all sides for their contributions. There is a considerable amount of agreement on many of the issues put forward by Deputy Murphy. I believe the constructive way in which Members can approach this in a non-political way is welcome and I hope this trend can continue when they come to consider the policy analysis that has been carried out by all the stakeholders through the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, process and when the Government is in a position to publish the heads of the Bill, which hopefully will be next week. Thereafter, the engagement can commence with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht. Obviously, stakeholders also will then have an opportunity to have an input with that committee. Ultimately, I envisage 2013 as being a year in which statutory underpinning can be given to a lot of issues on which we have failed in the past. In that regard, I include political parties that were in this House and comprised people who were expected to be able to deliver on the environment but failed to do so. I do not wish to see a repetition of the shambles that was evident at the end of the last Dáil and this is the reason I have appealed to people not to pander to any particular sector. I will not and I hope the same can apply across the board, no matter what view one takes on these proposals on this particular topic. Moreover, I hope that a measure of agreement will be reached that will meet our climate change objectives and will recognise the importance of dealing effectively and strongly with all the sectoral plans that must be implemented to meet the legally binding targets we already are obliged to meet by 2020. Deputy Catherine Murphy might note that as part of Ireland's Presidency programme, I have facilitated a discussion at our informal Environment Council meeting next April on a higher level of ambition on the mitigation that is required for the European Union to consider into the future.

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