Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Cabinet sub-committee on climate change has been meeting regularly. There is an overall Cabinet sub-committee, chaired by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, now dealing with climate change. My Department has a co-ordinating role in terms of the delivery of climate change policy. We have made progress. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act, which is comprehensive legislation, became law in 2021, as the Deputy knows. That legislation fulfilled the commitments in the programme for Government to introduce the climate Bill, establish in law the 2050 target of net-zero emissions and make the adoption of five-year carbon budgets that set maximum emissions by sector a legal requirement.

At COP26, Ireland announced that it would more than double its climate finance contribution to developing countries to €225 million per year by 2025. A strategic roadmap setting out the delivery of those commitments will be published this year.

We are committed to the scaling and speeding up of our switch to alternative energy systems. The Maritime Area Planing Bill, which established the maritime area regulatory authority, MARA, was passed last year. We are working intensively on the wind energy piece in order to drive offshore wind energy projects that would enable us to be a net exporter of energy post 2030.

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