Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I grant that he has attended several high profile climate change conferences around the world which were publicised. We need a strategy to address climate change because it is for real.

My second suggestion concerns the EU solidarity fund. The Minister was quoted on RTE last week as having broached the subject with Commission officials and I think he said that they were rather un-enthusiastic about an application from Ireland. Is the Minister content to leave it at that or does he have some plan? The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, has circulated a table showing 30 previous occasions on which the solidarity fund made payments to member states especially on grounds of adverse weather conditions. It made one in 1999 to Greece for its raisin crop which was affected by adverse weather. The Minister might take the opportunity in his reply to tell us whether he intends to pursue that because it is worth considering and he might have a view.

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