Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

It is welcome to have a question on climate as I am not sure we, as a Dáil, are having the level of focus and discussion needed on this issue. The climate emergency has not gone away; far from it. We need to look at how we can accelerate the pace of change that needs to take place. We need a conversation about how we bring people with us, on which the Deputy had some good ideas. I, too, know people who would like to retrofit their home or switch to an electric vehicle but cost is still a barrier. We, as a Government, must reflect on that.

The short answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes". He will begin to see real and meaningful intent when we publish our national development plan, which I hope will be at the end of this month. It will show a commitment in areas like investing in water infrastructure, supporting Irish Water, accelerating the delivery of renewable energy and investing more in transport, including public transport. The Cabinet committee on climate action, environment and energy met this week and had a good and detailed discussion on climate policy. The latest data from the Environmental Protection Agency, which made a presentation to the committee, shows that Ireland's emissions continue to fall for the third year in a row and are at their lowest level in three decades.

I say that not because we are where we need to be but because we do not want to inject a sense of fatalism into the debate, which the Deputy is not doing. We are able to make more progress as a country. Emissions decreased by 2% in 20024 and by 10.6% between 2021 and 2024. Ireland now has the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years. This is more significant when we consider that this period saw 1.5 million more people living in the country and over a million more homes. We are achieving reductions at a time when our economy is, thankfully, continuing to grow strongly.

However, the Deputy is entirely correct that we have a long way to go to get to our 2030 climate targets. Certainly, there is no white flag being raised by the Government. The next phase has to be about acceleration. It has to be about how we can do more and do it more quickly. That is why the Government has announced our intention to establish a new climate investment clearing house to try to accelerate progress on our energy transition. That is the big dial change. If we can get to that energy transition, we can stop using dirty fuels and start being able to produce clean renewable energy.

There are a number of commitments in the programme for Government on climate. They include strengthening governance structures around the climate action plan, achieving energy independence by harnessing renewable energy resources, ramping up home retrofits, improving grants, on which we have given a commitment, enabling communities to secure grid access for local renewable projects and supporting the just transition commission to ensure no community is left behind. One of the big decisions the previous Government made was the establishment of the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. We are putting billions of euro aside to be able to invest in that transition.

I have read the Commission's report on our implementation of EU environmental law. My honest evaluation is that it is a mixed bag. It points to some areas of progress over the past year, including in biodiversity, our clean air strategy, the publication of successive climate action plans and the binding legislation.

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