Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 12, to delete lines 25 and 26 and subsitute the following: “(ii) by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘Act of 2014’ means the Companies Act 2014;

‘carbon budget’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are permitted during the budget period;

‘climate action plan’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 4(1)(a) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the annual plan prepared by the Minister to pursue the national climate objective;

‘emissions’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means in relation to greenhouse gases, emission of those gases into earth’s atmosphere attributable to industrial, agricultural, energy or other anthropogenic activities in the State;

‘greenhouse gas’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means—

(a) carbon dioxide,

(b) methane,

(c) nitrous oxide,

(d) hydrofluorocarbons,

(e) perfluorocarbons,

(f) sulphur hexafluoride, or

(g) nitrogen trifluoride;

‘National Climate Change Adaptation Framework’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 5 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the plan prepared by the State which specifies the application of adaptation measures in different sectors and by a local authority in its administrative area;

‘National Climate Objective’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 3(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the State’s obligation to reduce the extent of further global warming, to pursue and achieve, by no later than the end of the year 2050, the transition to a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy;

‘National long term climate action strategy’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 6 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the long term strategy which specifies the manner in which it is proposed to achieve the national climate objective;

‘sectoral adaptation plan’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 6 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the plans made by each Minister of the Government for which each such Minister of the Government has responsibility;

‘sectoral emissions ceiling’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 6C of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended).”,”.

Some subsequent amendments are contingent on amendment No. 4, which seeks to insert new definitions into the Bill. This is about updating interpretations of a section of the Bill to include various terms that are defined in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, as amended. It makes sense to do this in the context of the subsequent amendments I have proposed. The Minister of State will see the language is consistent with the climate Act the Government passed in 2021. It is critically important that we have an alignment of our gas Acts with that highly significant legislation we passed two years ago.

Amendment No. 13 is also in my name so I will speak to that. This amendment would update sections 10A and 10B of the Gas Act to give both the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and the Minister additional power to issue a direction to the board. The proposed updates to section 10A of the Gas Act 1976 are related to the powers of the CRU, and would allow it to assess gas connection applications in the context of that expected emissions profile for connections and its contribution to the decarbonisation of Ireland's economy. This is proposed in the context of the recent advice to the joint Oireachtas committee from the Climate Change Advisory Council, CCAC. That advice recommended amendments to section 10A of the 1976 Gas Act to allow for refusal of connections for fossil fuel generation for data centres. The committee sought this advice from the CCAC following communication from the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and Gas Networks Ireland, GNI. Following the Minister's recommendation to GNI to stop issuing connections for data centres, it stated it was obliged to offer all third-party connection applications to the network.

The first set of proposed updates outlined in paragraphs (i) and (j) of amendment No. 13 are considered necessary to enable the CRU to issue a future direction to the board following its recent publication of Review of Large Energy Users connection policy: Call for Evidence. That call for evidence from the CRU suggests it will be necessary for systems operators, and that is all system operators of both gas and electricity, to "consider the expected emissions profile of the facility proposed under the connection application and ... its contribution to the decarbonisation of Ireland’s economy". The proposals outlined in the amendment are designed to ensure the legislative provision is provided for in the Gas Act. The proposed change to section (7B) simply includes a provision to allow the system operator to refuse a gas connection, if it is considered to not be in the public interest to provide the additional capacity.