Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will answer that as well because the Deputy gave me a petition on it from many of our constituents, and it is an important issue. I acknowledge the Deputy's good work on it and the meeting we had with the Delgany community council. I will work with the Deputy and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to see if we can make progress on that issue. While it is a local Wicklow issue, it is also a climate issue and an important community amenity we would like to see utilised for that.

Deputy Whitmore and other colleagues made a broader point on where we are at, and she is right to say setting targets is the easy bit and delivering them is harder. That is a statement of fact. She is also right to say it was important to set the targets and put them in law. We now need to put our shoulder to the wheel collectively to make sure we achieve the targets and do not end up paying fines.

The Government is committed to addressing greenhouse gas emissions. That is why we passed one of the most ambitious climate laws in the world and are trying to mobilise the public and private sectors to reduce climate emissions. As Deputy Barry predicted I would say, we saw a decrease of 6.8% in Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions compared with 2022, which had seen a 1.9% reduction on the previous year. Encouragingly, we have seen decreases in emissions across key sectors: electricity, 21.6%; industry, 5.8%; agriculture, 4.6%; and residential, 7.1%, while overall emissions fell below the 1990 baseline for the first time in three decades, and at a time when our economy grew by around 5%, which points to decoupling of economic growth and emissions.

I say that while fully accepting we will have to do more and raise the scale of the ambition. However, we cannot get fatalistic when it comes to climate change. We need businesses and people in all sectors of our economy to buy into the national and international effort. This is proof we can make progress. Recent modelling calculations from UCC's MaREI institute shows we are on track to stay within our first carbon budget if we achieve an annual 8% reduction in 2024 and 2025. There are other encouraging signs around public transport usage, falling nitrogen fertiliser use and retrofitting numbers up 80% in one year. There is more to do and that is why we have established this fund for climate adaptation and are putting billions of euro into it each year, which will be available to the next government for the uplift in the scale of ambition and action that will be required.

I take Deputy Boyd Barrett's point on needing to get offshore developments right. I would argue there is a comprehensive process already in place in terms of the mapping exercise and planning process. We also need to develop and build them at some point too. That is important.

I will look at Deputy Murphy's Bill, which has been published but which I have yet to read. I thank him for bringing it to my attention.

Did I answer Deputy Barry's question? I think I did.

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