Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The objective of Ireland's first statutory national mitigation plan is to set out what Ireland is doing, and is planning to do, to further the national transition objective as set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.

The national mitigation plan has been prepared having regard to the provisions set out in the 2015 Act in close collaboration with all relevant Departments and, in particular, with the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport; Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government; and Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As well as being supported by a range of technical, economic and environmental inputs, the national mitigation plan has also been informed by the submissions received during a public consultation in March and April 2017.

In addition, I invited the climate change advisory council, following my publication of the draft national mitigation plan, to engage directly with me and with other relevant Ministers with a view to providing its recommendations to feed into the preparation of the final plan. All input received from the advisory council has been considered in finalising the national mitigation plan.

In accordance with the provisions of the 2015 Act, the national mitigation plan was circulated to Government in the required timeframe and I am pleased to confirm that the Government has, at its meeting today, approved the national mitigation plan for publication. I am looking forward to publishing the plan and formally laying it before both Houses of the Oireachtas very shortly.

In addition to setting out the full range of measures the Government has implemented or is considering to reduce Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, the plan will include more than 100 individual actions to be implemented across Government to advance the national transition agenda. These actions are the individual building blocks that will enable the Government and wider society to implement deeper reductions in emissions in the years ahead. This will be an ongoing process aimed at incremental and permanent decarbonisation.

In order to debate the national mitigation plan in the Houses of the Oireachtas, the 2015 Act provides that relevant Ministers deliver an annual transition statement to each House. The first such statement was delivered last December and I intend that the 2017 statement will be delivered shortly following the presentation of budget 2018. I also intend that the annual transition statement will incorporate an annual progress report on the implementation of the national mitigation plan. In this way, each Minister with a role in the national mitigation plan will be accountable to the Oireachtas for reporting on progress within his or her respective sector.

The first national mitigation plan is a work in progress, reflecting the reality of where we are in our decarbonisation transition having regard to a number of factors, including curtailed public and private investment over the course of recent years. The first plan will not provide a complete roadmap to achieve the national transition objective to 2050, but it will begin the process of development of medium to long-term options to ensure we are well positioned to take the necessary actions in the next and following decades.

The plan will become a living document accessible on my Department's website and will be updated on an ongoing basis as analysis, dialogue and technological innovation generate further cost-effective sectoral mitigation options.

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