Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They are great but there is more to Dublin than Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 1.

The publication of the IPCC report yesterday confirms that with global warming already having reached 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, climate change is causing widespread and increasingly irreversible losses and damages. We have a rapidly closing window of opportunity to maintain a liveable future for humanity. The report brings together the latest scientific evidence on climate change solutions to inform policymaking at national and international levels. The IPCC has demonstrated there are options for all sectors to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

The increased use of renewable energy, improved energy efficiency and fuel switching have reduced global carbon dioxide emissions across global industry and the energy sector. I look forward to working with our international partners not just at the next UN climate conference, COP28 in Dubai later this year, but also on an ongoing and continuing basis. Equity, rights-based approaches and a just transition must also be essential to our actions. Ireland is committed to ensuring that as we increase international finance to ensure developing countries can develop in a climate-friendly way, these funds are aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and must be directed at the most vulnerable.

Yesterday's report clearly reinforces the message that the time to act is now. The Government is doing so by passing one of the most ambitious climate laws in the world and mobilising the public and private sectors to reduce emissions. The Climate Action Plan 2023 sets out in detail how Ireland can accelerate the actions that are needed to respond to this crisis by putting climate solutions at the centre of Ireland’s social and economic development.

I was asked about motor vehicle duty and vehicle registration tax. I had understood that was emissions-based. I will double-check on that. I think that is how it has been redesigned over the past couple of years to make it much more emissions-based so that the higher emission vehicles pay higher taxes.

We are not issuing any new exploration licences and have not done so for a number of years but there are existing ones which are still valid. Our view is that we will continue to need to use natural gas, perhaps for decades. Natural gas is a much cleaner fuel than coal, which we also use, and oil, which we use on occasion. It makes sense to see natural gas as a transition fuel. Indeed, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has signed off in recent weeks on the purchase of new gas turbines to guarantee energy security next winter. For so long as we are using natural gas as a transitional fuel, it makes sense to use it rather than to import it. More emissions arise from bringing gas in from other parts of the world than from using our own gas if we have it.

On electric vehicles, the main investment at the moment is around charging points. We believe this is the most appropriate way to invest Government resources.

There are a number of different BusConnects projects but many of them are now in planning and are with An Bord Pleanála. That applies to the DART+ and metro projects as well. I hope that An Bord Pleanála can turn those applications around pretty quickly. We have been talking about things like a metro for Dublin and DART expansion since the 1980s and 1990s. We have never got those projects to the point of being in An Bord Pleanála. I hope this will be the year when we get railway orders for DART expansion and for metro so that we can start building them in the next two to three years. The same thing applies to BusConnects for Dublin and the other cities, but of course that is a more recent project.

We are not proposing any changes to the climate goals. As we all know, we will struggle to meet the targets of 51% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Our expanding population and economy, our settlement patterns and our agricultural base make it much harder for us to achieve those targets than many other countries. We are committed to doing this, however. We must ensure it is done in a way that is fair and does not result in increased employment or lower living standards for people.

On the retrofit programme, I hear the criticisms from the Deputies. I know that when we discuss this at Cabinet committees the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will tell a very different story and will produce statistics and information to show that the retrofit programme is going well with good uptake. There is a special provision around the significant number of people who qualify for the fuel allowance. The grants they can receive are much higher than those received by people who do not qualify. We have to acknowledge that there are real constraints because we are asking our construction sector to do so much at the moment. We are asking it to build many new houses, build out public infrastructure, build renewable energy and retrofit other houses. It creates a real constraint on us. I hear what Deputies are saying about the delays in the applications being processed and we are working on that.

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