Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change will next meet. [9797/23]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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19. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change will next meet. [9676/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna 18 agus 19 le chéile.

The Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change oversees the implementation of the ambitious programme for Government commitments on the environment and climate change. The Cabinet committee considers matters relating to climate change, biodiversity loss and the quality of our water and air. It is a forum for consideration of potential policies or interventions posed at a national or EU level to improve Ireland's environmental performance.

The updated climate action plan 2023 was approved by Government and published on 21 December. It contains policies, actions and measures intended to lower greenhouse gas emissions and helps Ireland adopt to the adverse impacts of climate change that are now evident and unavoidable. The plan sets out actions that are required across the sector to meet Ireland's statutory target of reducing emissions by more than half by 2030, with 2018 being the baseline year, and achieving carbon neutrality by the middle of the century.

The plan identifies actions that would help the Government to adhere to the carbon budget and sectoral emission ceilings we adopted last year.

It identifies key performance indicators within each sector that will be used to measure our progress. The plan will be accompanied by an annexe of actions which will provide further detail on implementation, including specific timelines and bodies responsible for ensuring actions are completed as planned. The annexe is being finalised and will be published in the coming weeks. The next meeting of the Cabinet committee is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 20 April and will continue to meet regularly to progress all aspects of the Government's ambitious climate action and environmental policy agenda.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Does the Taoiseach accept that Ireland's energy security policies are failing Ireland and they are more in tune with the green agenda of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and others? Does he acknowledge that the policies are driving up the costs of food, electricity, petrol and diesel and gach rud mar sin for Irish citizens? While governments around the world are granting new oil and gas exploration licences to ensure cheaper energy for their citizens, Ireland's Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has effectively closed this option down. This is having a detrimental effect. We have to accept that four fifths of energy worldwide comes from fossil fuels and we just cannot get over that fact at this point in time. We cannot be the outliers here in saving the world while we are penalising our citizens, small businesses and everybody else in an enormous way and putting them into penury. It is just not doable and it is a policy that is bringing us into deeper failure and síos an cul de sac mór.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett will have one minute. This session will finish then. Then I will go back to the Taoiseach. If Deputy Boyd Barrett takes longer than one minute, the Taoiseach will not have time to respond.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will take up the issue I raised earlier. The Taoiseach said he finds my position on offshore wind confusing. Yet, there is a thing called a "just transition". I know the Taoiseach does not believe in it, because his solution to everything is to let the private developers decide. That is what he has done with offshore wind. On the relevant projects, he gives them a free pass regardless of the impact on marine biology, fishers, etc., as if the two things have to be a trade-off. The truth is that there is a thing called "sustainable planning", where one plans out where it is suitable to protect the marine, where it is suitable to develop offshore wind and how we ensure the sustainability of existing industries, such as the fishers, etc. That is called sustainable planning. People argue for that and there is nothing contradictory about it. What they actually want is a just, sustainable transition to the climate future we need to have. Yet, what the Government is doing with the offshore wind at the expense fishermen, marine biology and biodiversity is letting profit-driven developers dictate the development of the offshore marine. We are going to pay a price for that.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Mattie McGrath raised the issue of energy security. As a country, we are doing okay with energy security. I remember only a few months ago there was a real concern that we would be facing black-outs and brown-outs, but that has not happened. We have managed to get the necessary emergency generation in place and we are working to ensure it is in place for next winter and the one after. We have 90 days' worth of reserves for petrol, diesel, kerosene and oil, which is important too. We are examining whether we need to supplement our gas security with liquefied natural gas, LNG. However, we have two sources of gas, the two pipelines that come from the UK and our own Corrib gas field. I honestly do not believe the future is in further oil and gas exploration. There are a lot of licences for exploration that have been issued already and they will be honoured, but I do not think we need new licences. The future is renewable and that will give us energy security, energy price stability and energy independence. That should be the priority.

To reassure Deputy Boyd Barrett, I believe in a just transition. That is one of the reasons this will take time. Climate action could be done more quickly, but it would be hard to do it justly if we did it more quickly. That is one of the reasons we need to consider that as part of the just transition. I also agree with sustainable planning, but that requires an independent planning process. There is no Minister. Maybe it happens in some cases, but generally we have an independent planning process. The arguments are heard from all sides and independent planners make a decision-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Developers have selected these sites.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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-----on the right thing to do. The Deputy was cheeky enough to tell me what he thinks I think. He should let me tell him what I think he thinks, which is just to find any excuse to oppose anything and there is always a reason.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It would be a very confusing debate if that were to continue.