Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 499: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason he strongly advocated recently at a Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security debate on 19 January 2011 the need for climate change legislation which sets mandatory targets; if his view on the need for Ireland to introduce climate change legislation has changed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34238/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In releasing the National Climate Policy Review on 3rd November 2011, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, confirmed the objective, in line with the Programme for Government, to introduce climate legislation within the lifetime of the Government. As indicated in the Government legislation programme published on 14 September 2011, it is expected that it will be 2012 at the earliest before any legislation can be published, taking account of the need to progress the broader climate policy agenda under the aegis of the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and the Green Economy.

On foot of the climate policy review, it is clear that national policy development to underpin deeper greenhouse gas mitigation is the most urgent and therefore the most immediate priority. In this regard, Minister Hogan has announced that he will engage in a policy development process to identify the necessary policy mix to support an ambitious but realistic national mitigation agenda. This process will include: an independent study by the secretariat to the National Economic and Social Council; a public consultation in 2012 to enable all stakeholders to engage in the policy development process; and sectoral mitigation progress to be pursued through the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and the Green Economy.

I agree with Minister Hogan that this is a sensible response to the climate policy review, and I support his stated intention to take the policy development process forward on a transparent and inclusive basis.