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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together.

The Climate Action Plan 2023 sets out how Ireland will accelerate the action required to respond to the climate crisis, putting climate solutions at the core of Ireland's social and economic development. The plan includes actions across all sectors that will transform and improve life in Ireland. It will help us to break free from our reliance on imported fossil fuels and tap into our abundant resources of renewable energy. It will allow us to improve our buildings and homes to make them more energy efficient and much less expensive to heat. It will improve how we travel, how we work and how we use our land. The transformation on which we have embarked in all these sectors will present significant economic and social opportunities, with new sectors and jobs emerging all over the country.

The Department of the Taoiseach prepares quarterly progress reports on the implementation of the actions committed to under the annual updates of the climate action plan. The reports provide a detailed breakdown of completed and delayed actions each quarter. Once approved by Government, they are published. The latest progress report for the climate action plan was published on 4 May and refers to actions that were due to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023. The report has been published on the Department of the Taoiseach's website.

The quarterly reports detail progress in each of the six high-impact sectors identified in the climate action plan. These are agriculture, transport, electricity, land use, buildings and industry. They also provide context for the actions in terms of emissions targets and trends, key performance indicators, and further detail on actions of particular significance. The completion rate for the first quarter stands at 75%, with 27 of 36 actions completed on schedule. All delayed measures from the first quarter will be carried forward and reported on in the second quarter.

High-impact measures completed in the first quarter include implementation of the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, implementation of the energy efficiency obligation scheme, publication of phase 1 of the land use review; the launch of the public sector climate action strategy, and the introduction of a new tax incentive to encourage small-scale landlords to undertake retrofitting works while tenants remain in situ. The second progress report on the Climate Action Plan 2023 is being drafted at present.

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