Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In my limited time, I wish to focus on the climate and environment budget. Budget 2024 reaffirms the Government's commitment to a climate strategy that is not working. Despite Ireland having the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and having blown almost half of its first five-year carbon budget in two years, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party remain steadfast in their determination to lead Ireland down the path of certain climate failure. Yesterday, they introduced us to the infrastructure, climate and nature fund, an ambiguous fund that lacks any detail, clarity or certainty. The fund may be available post 2026, although we are not sure when, what criteria will apply or for what it will be used. While a commitment to a future investment fund is welcome, we cannot afford to wait on a measure that is currently a notion. Notions are not actions. There is nowhere near enough in the here and now in the Government's budget. Countless viable and urgent projects need investment now, for example, the western rail corridor, the Navan rail line and the implementation of district heating in this city, and they cannot afford to wait. Indeed, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, at his press conference yesterday exampled district heating in this city as a scheme that might benefit from this fund. However, the Government's commitment is to deliver district heating in this city by 2025. As such, it would not be eligible for the fund, or so we are led to believe.

In budget 2024, we see only the most minimal increases in the Government's climate spend. Shockingly, it has decided to decrease its investment in some areas, for example, the energy transition. In our alternative budget, Sinn Féin far outstripped the Government's ambition by delivering hundreds of millions euro more on supply-side investment across a radically overhauled retrofit scheme in the context of Ireland's energy transition and across efforts to restore nature. Our alternative budget had €152 million more for residential and community retrofits and €42 million more for social retrofits. We do not know what the Government's allocation for solar photovoltaic, PV, is, but Sinn Féin doubled last year's allocation. This is the scale of ambition that we need to get us on the right trajectory between now and 2030.

Time and again, we have heard from a range of stakeholders that there is an implementation deficit. Instead of delivering a step change in respect of climate and the environment, the Government has doubled down on a path that is failing and is set to continue to fail.

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