Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They are pretty big questions. Will the roadmaps get us back on track? They need to. That is why it has taken a while to put them together. In truth, we are not where we need to be, as the Deputy will be aware, to be able to meet the targets we set for 2025. The targets for 2030 are another matter. We need to accelerate delivery next year in getting buy-in from businesses of all shapes and sizes to the targets we have set. The Deputy will see us placing a big emphasis on the big emitters, as I said earlier. That is where we can make the biggest reductions in a short time. The Deputy will also see some big projects by some large companies that are on their own pathways to reduce emissions and get to net zero at some point in the future, kicking in over the next few years. We will see big chunks of reduction as some of the big emitters take actions they are planning at the moment, effectively shifting to renewables. Many of the onshore wind energy projects today are being funded by companies that use a lot of energy and use carbon-based fuels to do their work. They have given commitments to change that and some of those will kick in over the next few years.

Why is the take-up so low? That is one of the reasons we went on the road this year to hold building better business conferences around the country. We have been to all nine of the regional enterprise areas and our main focus has been on trying to get businesses thinking about decarbonisation for the first time. Many small business owners say they have not had the time, they have been through a series of challenges and they will get to decarbonisation, but not yet. We are trying to get buy-in.

I have a list of the green transition fund supports and figures. The numbers of approvals are as follows: 110 under the GreenStart programme; 22 under the GreenPlus programme; 74 under climate action vouchers; only five under strategic consultancy grants; and 210 under the climate planning fund for business.

These are small numbers. Even though, combined, we are spending nearly €8.5 million on interventionist grant aid to try to change practices, we are still talking about companies in the hundreds, not the thousands, never mind tens of thousands. We will probably see a much bigger figure for those accessing the climate toolkit, which does not cost anything. There is a significant increase in the usage of that. However, as regards LEOs, for example, for the year to date up to 31 October, there were only 24 applications for the energy efficiency grant. There were just under 500 applications for the green for business programme but still nothing like what is needed for buy-in.

There are two issues in that regard. First, there is a relatively low take-up and, second, if we are to have a massive ratcheting up of the numbers, we also need to match that with significant funding. At present, the funding we have is being used but the numbers are relatively small. We launched this new grant aid for solar panels in the summer and that money has already been used up. We are now under pressure to find more money to extend it. We put €13 million in place for the second half of the year and that money is nearly gone. We are seeing hundreds of businesses applying for that fund.

This is accelerating but there is still a huge amount of work to do, from a communications point of view, to get businesses to tap into the resources, grant aid, advice and mentoring that is there for this decarbonisation challenge. That is why, for example, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has access to a significant climate fund, which will be used for many of these programmes in future. I suspect that my Department and his will make a strong case to significantly ratchet up the available resources for adaptation within industry to decarbonise. That needs to get under way next year. We have many programmes that are happening but the widespread adoption of them, which will need more money and more communications, is what we are focusing on now.

The Deputy is somebody who has advocated for the circular economy and a circular approach to economic development for quite a number of years now. As he knows, the whole-of-government circular economy strategy committed to developing over time a series of sectoral roadmaps for resource-intensive sectors of the economy. That includes construction and demolition, which is a major part of our waste problem, and other areas. I am very open to the approach the Deputy talked about. I would like to explore it in a little more detail. I am happy to do so through the committee or elsewhere. On the idea of circular compacts in areas such as packaging, processing and power, and recovery and reuse, we are putting sectoral roadmaps in place for some of these areas anyway, but if there is a more comprehensive way of doing it through a public-private compact, I would be very open to it.

I have just been given a note on that; maybe we are doing more than I think. CIRCULÉIRE is a public-private partnership cocreated by Irish Manufacturing Research and three strategic partners, namely, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the EPA, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, EIT, Climate-KIC. Together with industry partners, CIRCULÉIRE aims to assist manufacturers and their supply chains-----