Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It will take me some time to go through as there are so many different amendments but I will take the first one beyond Nos. 8 and 9 which, as I said, are now moot, as an example. The proposed section 4(11) provides "A Minister... shall, in so far as practicable, perform his or her functions in a manner consistent with the most recent approved climate action plan and the most recent approved national ... climate action strategy." I do not see where the wording there weakens the provision or gives any out. A Minister has to be practical in terms of the policy levers one has to hand. A Minister cannot flick a switch and tell elements of society, such as the 120,000 farmers we talked about earlier, that they have to immediately do X, Y and Z. The Minister sets in place the policy measures and mechanisms to deliver but does not have fiat. That wording recognises it.