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

I thank the Chair and members for the invitation here to speak. I am accompanied by Mr. Joseph Cummins and Mr. Alan Dempsey from the climate action and energy policy unit in my Department. I am looking forward to engaging with the members and discussing the role of my Department in accelerating the sustainable transition of our economy and, ultimately, our society.

As the committee will be aware, the White Paper on Enterprise is our strategy document, setting out the future direction for Irish enterprise policy. It firmly establishes decarbonisation as a core pillar of the Department's work. We will measure ourselves going forward against carbon abatement objectives, alongside employment and productivity.

Climate change, and the transition to renewable energy, continue to shape the environment in which businesses operate. The transition is under way and irreversible. My Department and our enterprise agencies are there to help businesses prepare to thrive in a low-carbon economy in the future.

I recognise that urgent additional action is needed from my Department, its agencies, across government and our enterprise sector, to ensure we are on a viable path to meet the targets we have set on carbon abatement and renewable energy.

As members know, my Department leads on addressing emissions from our manufacturing industry, and on the commercial built environment, as well as enterprise policy broadly. My Department will shortly publish two decarbonisation roadmaps, under the heat and built environment task force. An industrial emissions decarbonisation roadmap will set the trajectory to reducing emissions associated with heat used in manufacturing processes. The commercial buildings decarbonisation roadmap will set out how we will achieve the emissions reductions from the buildings in which enterprises operate. Both roadmaps will demonstrate the trajectory and ambition required to decarbonise these cohorts of emissions, and the actions that businesses and policymakers need to take to deliver them. This is not an easy journey, but having a roadmap will be helpful in getting us there.

I am aware that many businesses have yet to embark on their sustainability journey. I am very conscious that businesses, particularly SMEs, have many competing priorities. I have been focusing on engaging businesses wherever they are currently on their journey, and demonstrating that there are simple, cost-effective things every company can do to get started. The Climate Toolkit 4 Business is the obvious starting place where people can get clear direction online on how they do their sustainability audit to effectively get started with their climate response.

This year, my Department and I have run eight Building Better Business events throughout the country to promote the climate action and digitalisation agendas, with a final event in the Convention Centre Dublin a few hours ago. The response has been extremely positive, with a willingness in our enterprise sector to seize the opportunity and challenges of the twin transitions of digitalisation and decarbonisation. Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, local enterprise offices, LEOs, and other State agencies such as SEAI and SkillNet Ireland, have significantly stepped up efforts to bring advisory and funding programmes to the attention of businesses.

Government does not expect businesses to act alone, we are mobilising significant support for decarbonisation. Grant support is already available for companies to invest in technologies to decarbonise their manufacturing processes and their space heating. I am encouraging all businesses to engage with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, LEOs or the SEAI to start implementing a real programme of decarbonisation solutions. Business can address both onsite and supply-chain emissions, with the food waste charter being a great example of the latter.

I thank the members for the committee’s engagement following the Climate Change Advisory Council’s report and recommendations during the summer. They will have seen my written response to those recommendations. My Department and I are actively progressing a number of the council’s key recommendations, such as those on the public procurement of lower carbon cement - as members know the cement industry is a big part of the challenge for industry - modern methods of construction in our housing sector which is progressing and energy efficiency for SMEs.

I reiterate how central I believe the decarbonisation agenda is to enterprise policy and Ireland’s future competitiveness. The green transition will occasionally be difficult, but it will certainly be worth it. It is necessary to protect Ireland's competitiveness into the future as well as meeting our climate targets. Policies we are implementing today, will make Ireland a greener, more sustainable, more prosperous country tomorrow, improving the resilience of our economy. I again thank the members of committee for the opportunity to discuss these topics with them. I am happy to take any questions members might have.