Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I should have pointed out when I was responding to Deputy McDonald that my understanding is that Deputy Barry Heneghan is on that flotilla as well. I extend my best wishes to him. I express my concern and the concern of the wider Government for his safety as well as that of Senator Andrews.

Deputy Bacik is being unfair. It is inappropriate to compare the response of the Irish Government to climate change to that of the response of the current American Government. That is inappropriate and it is not based among any factual understanding. It is not a fair assessment of the work that is being done by this Government since it came into office. There is no doubt but that this Government recognises that climate change is probably the most pressing challenge for our society. There is full recognition within the Government that the impacts of climate change are still to be seen on a continuous basis. If we look at the excessive temperatures we are experiencing, not just in Ireland but throughout Europe, and if we look at the extreme weather events that seem to be more frequent now, that is the evidence of what is happening as a result of climate change.

I know the Minister, Darragh O'Brien, takes his role extremely seriously when it comes to combating climate change. If we look at what has happened from the data, we can see that the 2024 data from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, shows that Ireland's emissions continue to fall for the third year in a row and are at their lowest level in three decades compared with 1990 levels. Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 2% in 2024 compared with 2023 and decreased by 10.6% from 2021 to 2024 while the economy grew strongly. It is important to note that there has been considerable success achieved in the area of climate change. It is a demanding target to meet our emissions, but they are targets that the Government is committed to meeting and is making its best endeavours to ensure that we do meet them. Ireland is in a slightly different position to many European countries where they have not seen the same level of economic expansion and growth that we have. We have been able to combine that expansion while at the same time ensuring that we take our climate obligations seriously.

The Deputy highlighted data centres. It is important that we do not start targeting one aspect of our economy for the purpose of presenting it as being the villain in terms of the cause of climate change. We need to recognise that climate change and the response to it will only be achieved through a co-ordinated agreed response from the Government in which society takes its part in and business plays its part as well.

The Deputy also mentioned the issue of retrofitting.

In my answer to Deputy McDonald, I highlighted the money that is available for retrofitting. That is a scheme that needs to be availed of by members of the public. The Government is backing it with money to ensure we can save on energy consumption.

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