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

We are beyond a wake up call. We have an action plan and it is being implemented. The budget that has been passed, on which the Deputy made a contribution, is proof of that. We are investing more in electric vehicles. We have ambitious targets and we need to meet them. We are investing more in warmer homes and have a budget to match.

We have a commitment to have a radical change in how we manage waste from next year on. We are decarbonising the energy supply. Some 30% of our energy needs are now being provided by renewables and by 2030, that figure needs to be 70%. We have a new approach to just transition, in particular in the midlands in the context of the challenge faced by Bord na Móna. We have put money behind those new approaches.

We will appoint a just transition commissioner in order that we have somebody who is managing the transition, with a significant budget, and works with the affected sectors and people and families involved. We have set aside €7 million to restore 1,800 ha of bogs between 2020 and 2024. We are at the point of implementing an action plan. Each Department has targets it needs to meet by law. That is uncomfortable for some people but there is now a need for our action plan to be quite uncomfortable, in terms of the pressure it puts on people to deliver on the targets on which they must deliver across sectors in a way that is just and fair to the people on whom we are imposing that new policy.

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