Ms Sharon Finegan:

I thank Deputy Bruton for the question. The first question was on reliance on one Minister to develop the sectoral divide-up. Head 6 of the proposed Bill outlines the roles of Ministers, Government and the Houses of the Oireachtas in developing and adopting carbon budgets, including requirements on the Minister for climate action to consult colleagues on the development of both the carbon budgets and the sectoral decarbonisation targets.

My reading of it is that there are specific instances in the proposed Bill which require the Minister at the time to engage with this Cabinet colleagues. I might just mention them as I see it. The first relates to the response to the council's budget. Once the carbon and climate change advisory council has proposed the carbon budget, the Minister prepares a recommendation for Government, including justifying variances from the council proposal, if any, and consulting fellow Ministers and the Oireachtas. As the committee no doubt will be aware, the Oireachtas may submit the council's proposal to a committee which may within four months provide the Oireachtas with a report. Therefore, that first engagement with Government is crucial.

The second is when the Government approves the carbon budgets or approves its subsequent modifications. Assuming that the budgets are accepted by the Oireachtas, they are then deemed to have effect. Those are two crucial moments when there is a full engagement of all the ministerial colleagues.

Where it becomes a more complex undertaking, perhaps, is down to the sectoral decarbonisation targets. That is the third real instance in the Bill where there is that wider engagement with the Cabinet colleagues around the table. What the Minister is required to do then is to prepare sectoral decarbonisation target ranges within that ceiling, which is approved by the Oireachtas, for Government approval following consultation with other Ministers. That level of consultation with fellow Ministers is very much stitched into the Bill. Finally, the Minister, under certain conditions outlined in the legislation and considering the advice of the council, can recommend for Government of a revised carbon budget.

Taken together, this model provides a robust cross-government consultation and co-operation in respect of the carbon budgetary process. It is likely that the Cabinet committee on the environment will be involved in each of these stages and, as such, the Department of the Taoiseach will continue to play a role in ensuring that whole-of-government co-ordination while ensuring that every Department plays its part.

On Deputy Bruton's second question, which was what leverage the Department has and whether we should be institutionalising some level of oversight, I would make two points. The oversight, in terms of meeting the targets or meeting the carbon budgets, is very clearly drawn out in head 13, which amends the current annual transition statement. It provides that the Minister with responsibility for climate action be accountable annually to the Oireachtas for outlining how the State has pursued the national 2050 climate objective, and then other Ministers with primary responsibility for relevant sectors will be accountable to the committee annually for outlining their sectors' performance in pursuing the national 2050 climate objectives. This connection with the Oireachtas is a powerful part of the Bill. We have seen, through the work of the Citizens' Assembly when it first came to the predecessor to this committee, that that cross-party engagement on, and ultimately support for, the Citizens' Assembly recommendations was a powerful driver. I would see this provision in the proposed Bill as being something similar.

On oversight of the plan, I think the Deputy's question was whether that should be legislated for. Typically, what the Department of the Taoiseach does is focus on key issues of importance and provide resources to ensure that there is a driving of and focus on those issues. It has been clear since the establishment of the climate action unit, which is a well-resourced unit with excellent expertise at our disposal, that climate is taken very seriously at the centre and I would envisage that would continue to be the case. I suppose it is a policy question as to whether something like that would be legislated for. I would have thought conceptually what we are looking for is a situation where climate action would become something which is made mainstream across Departments and that focus on governance from the centre in an ideal world would be no longer required because it would be hoped we would get to a point where the system is so seized by climate as an overarching policy objective that that would no longer be required. I hope that answers the Deputy's questions.