Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to take this Commencement Debate matter on behalf of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Of course we have to respect the separation of decision-making and so forth as well as the appropriateness of ministerial involvement. However, as I said at the outset the Minister also has responsibility to protect our environment as well as a responsibility to protect our natural resources and tourism industry. His responsibilities lie not only in terms of creating jobs but in terms of sustaining the jobs already in place. I would appreciate if the Minister of State brought these observations to the Minister. We will watch the process with interest.