Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the climate crisis with the Taoiseach. Today, we see the devastating report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council. They tell us that on its current trajectory, the Government will clearly miss our legally binding 2030 climate targets. We all know the consequences of that failure will be enormous. That is set out in the report: €26 billion in fines; and the really serious impact upon generations to come who will see a future stolen from them, generations who rely on us to take the necessary actions now to cut our emissions, tackle climate change and protect our biodiversity.

The report is significant but it is not news. The Taoiseach and his Government colleagues must have known about the missed targets and this projection because they have seen so many public bodies already telling them about Government failure on this, for example, the SEAI and the EPA. While an ignorant failure of policy could be forgiven, this is a conscious failure of political will. There is no accountability for the Government's failure either.

Last week, the Taoiseach told the House that he had noticed, I think from the Opposition, a "deliberate attempt" to present this Government as rowing back on climate change. The Taoiseach said there had been no resiling by this Government from climate action but, in fact, has there not been a clear rowing back from the position on climate taken by the previous Government, of which the Green Party was a member? For example, only months after denying this would happen, the Government will now import dirty LNG into our country and it has abandoned, in its programme for Government, the spending ratio for active travel and public transport. The Government's programme will, instead, favour the building of "Roads, baby, roads", as Trump might say. Incredibly, the programme for Government makes no reference to the legally required carbon budgets or to sectoral emissions ceilings which might set a pathway for achieving net zero.

We all know that Ireland's 2021 climate law sets a 2030 target for reducing emissions by 51%. Crucial to achieving that target and setting us on the right pathway are our three five-year carbon budgets. This process is very important and it envisages review by the Oireachtas on an ongoing basis. It makes the climate Minister responsible for updating the annual climate action plan but the Minister has not published this year's new climate action plan. Despite the fact we are now in the third month of 2025, there is no Oireachtas climate committee.

Therefore there is very little opportunity for accountability. The Taoiseach will not even facilitate the flow of information. It seems all reports of the climate action delivery board have been removed from the gov.iewebsite.

It seems climate is not a priority for the Government, despite the Taoiseach’s protestations to the contrary, and it seems it is making no effort to meet the 2030 targets. I have one burning question: does the Taoiseach admit that the legally binding climate targets will not and cannot be met by his Government?

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