The Cabinet Subcommittee on Climate Change has held no meetings in 2010

It has emerged that the Cabinet Subcommittee on Climate Change has held no meetings to date this year and held only two meetings during the whole of 2009 (The Irish Times May 27th 2010). The figures represent a significant decrease from 2008 when the committee, chaired by Taoiseach Brian Cowen, met a total of six times.

The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change also made scathing criticism of the Government’s engagement with the issue. Fine Gael TD Seán Barrett said yesterday that the committee which the Greens had insisted upon when entering coalition with Fianna Fáil was now “forgotten about”. He also stated “We have been led to believe that we are literally wasting our time sitting in this room."

The information was included in a parliamentary reply to the Labour Party spokeswoman on energy Liz McManus, who contended it has strong evidence that the Government’s commitment to climate change has dwindled and that the Green Party had abandoned its core issue. Ms McManus said “The setting up of this Cabinet Committee on Climate Change was heralded by the Greens as an ‘indication of the priority this Government is attaching to addressing climate change’ ... (link to where John Gormley said this in 2007).

I remember the setting up of this committee. It is in the Programme for Government and was indeed heralded by the Greens as an 'indication of the priority this Government is attaching to addressing climate change'.

Why the hell has this committee not met this year? Why did the Green Party insist this committee was set up if they are now happy that it never meets? Does the fact this committee has not met yet in 2010 give us an indication of the real commitment of the Green Party in Govt to address climate change?