Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2021-07-02
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Eamon Ryan (GP), Dublin Bay South

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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-07-02