The report of the Business Committee is taken as read. Are the proposed arrangements for this week's business agreed to?

They are not agreed. At the meeting of the Business Committee, a number of Opposition parties requested that the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, make a statement to the House on the absence of a transparent public appointments process for the members of the Climate Change Advisory Council. The Taoiseach utterly failed in his responsibility to deal with Fine Gael in the Katherine Zappone affair. Here we are again in that he is repeatedly refusing to demand that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, explain to this House why there was no transparent public appointments process for members of the climate council. I ask him not to rhyme off their CVs again. Nobody is questioning their skills or capacity; it is the lack of a transparent appointments process that brings them into disrepute. This is utterly wrong and unfair to the members of the council. The council has a responsibility to hold the Government to account independently. The Taoiseach is bringing it into disrepute in this regard by failing to have a proper appointments process.

In advance of Sunday's family farm protest about farm incomes, it is extremely disappointing that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine have failed again, despite calls from the likes of Deputy Michael Collins and others in our group who have sought a debate in his House on the national herd. The Taoiseach has brought a new term into the language: "stabilisation of the herd". This is more gobbledygook. What he means is the cut to the national herd. Why would he not call it as it is? People are sick to death of the phrase "stabilisation of the national herd". On the one hand, the Taoiseach and his Minister have said agriculture is the cause of the problem, but on the other hand, they will not admit their solution and that of their colleagues in the Green Party and Fine Gael is a cut to the national herd, which is a direct attack on family farm incomes. This is why thousands of people are going to come to Dublin on Sunday. Will the Taoiseach be there on Sunday to listen to them and hear what they have to say?

First, on Deputy Mac Lochlainn's point, I find it difficult to accept the bona fides of his proposition. I do not believe he is interested in transparency at all. He gave the game away in saying I am not supposed to recite the CVs of the members because it does not matter whether they are qualified. That seems to be his implication.

The process-----

With the greatest of respect, the Deputy's party has never observed process when it comes to appointing people when in government.

That is not true.

It is true. I can give chapter and verse on it if the Deputies want me to go through all the appointments Sinn Féin makes. All of the appointments-----

-----are characterised by the unusual coincidence that the appointees are party colleagues. The fact that people are qualified is very important. The Government has decided in respect of these members of the climate council-----

There is no process. It does not matter about the process, then.

That is the process, by the way. The Government is entitled to make decisions in respect of appointing people to very important-----

Entitled to-----

That is why governments are elected in the first instance. I genuinely think that what the Deputy is really about is-----

So there will be no debate.

-----undermining the Government every chance he can get and he is endeavouring to undermine the individuals. He said to ignore their qualifications, but their qualifications are important because they give the rationale for their appointment to the climate change council. That is why I itemised them last week for the Deputy.

They are friends of Deputy Eamon Ryan.

He obviously did not like being told how qualified they are.

I will now put the question-----

In terms of Deputy Healy-Rae-----

The Taoiseach forgot about family farms by not getting-----

Sure I did of course.

The Taoiseach let the cat out of the bag there. He thinks a lot about agriculture-----

The cat is an essential part of the family farm, as the Deputy knows. In any event-----

My God, if that is the best you can come out with-----

Deputy, please.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has travelled to almost every mart in the country. He has met farmers straight up - those who might agree with him and those who might disagree with him. The feedback we have received is that people have admired his honesty, his forthrightness and his ability to be accessible to farmers the length and breadth of the country. He is not going to shout out loud and so on like perhaps can be the Deputy's wont from time to time in terms of using colourful phrases and so on like that-----

I am not-----

-----but he is sincere about the issue of making sure we have sustainable farming into the future. That is the correct approach to take. In terms of the next decade and how we position food production in this country in a way that manages to reduce the carbon emissions, I think we have created a roadmap now for climate change and for sustainable farming that makes sense. I am not clear on the Deputy's position on climate change at all. I know some people in the Rural Independent Group seem to be against the very concept of climate change and seem to be in climate denial. I am not saying the Deputy is, but I am saying others in his group are.

They do not believe in the climate change view.

I live in the real world. Why are thousands of people-----

What is the real world? The real world is the world of climate change.

Why are thousands of people coming to Dublin on Sunday?

Deputies, please. Time is up.

Because-----

We have to move on.

Because they are worried.

I have no issue with people being worried but I can assure the Deputy we need to be balanced in how we comment on it as well and not be given to sloganeering and making assertions that are not true. I have seen all his presentations on it.