Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach the number of meetings of the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department, that have taken place to date in 2023. [10768/23]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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13. To ask the Taoiseach the number of meetings of the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department, that have taken place to date in 2023. [12649/23]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach the number of meetings of the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department, that have taken place to date in 2023. [12652/23]

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach the number of meetings of the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department, that have taken place to date in 2023. [12657/23]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department. [12856/23]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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17. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department. [12859/23]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach the number of meetings of the climate action delivery board, co-chaired by his Department, that have taken place to date in 2023. [13427/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 18, inclusive, together.

The climate action delivery board is jointly chaired by the Secretaries General of the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Membership of the delivery board consists of Secretaries General from those Government Departments which have the main responsibilities for climate action delivery. Meetings are also attended by the chiefs of staff of the three Government parties. A full list of the members of the board and its terms of reference are available on the Department of the Taoiseach website.

The climate action delivery board has met once so far this year, on 15 February.

The delivery board met four times in 2022 and will continue to meet on a quarterly basis to provide strategic direction and co-ordination of the Government's climate action agenda. The climate action plan 2023 has given the delivery board an additional role in providing recommendations to the Cabinet committee on environment and climate change on measures required to overcome any barriers or impediments to the implementation of climate policies.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Friends of the Earth research has established serious problems with the Government's retrofitting and energy efficiency programmes, which include waiting lists of up to three years for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's free home energy upgrades for lower income households. According to the report, "Government policy on energy poverty is lacking in scale and ambition, with a greater focus on crisis response that prioritises short-term fixes over long-term solutions." This is a similar theme to concerns raised recently by IBEC and Chambers Ireland regarding the Government's social and affordable housing targets. The Friends of the Earth report also highlights the significant barriers for lower income households to access retrofitting schemes, either due to high cost or lack of eligibility, stating that "policies are overly market-focused and undermined by siloed Departments and public bodies."

What is the Taoiseach's response to the report's analysis that retrofitting grants remain skewed for well-off homeowners? Will he consider the introduction of a tiered, deep-retrofit grant support of 65% to 100% for low- and middle-income households, dependent on income, as proposed by Sinn Féin?

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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The recent UN climate change report has warned us once again that if we do not speed up our climate action goals, the damage sustained by our planet will be irreversible. However, we still have time to prevent an all-out climate disaster if we begin taking these goals seriously now. The UN is urging wealthy countries, such as ours, to speed up our climate action goals by ten years, to 2040. Without doing so, the UN states that our future generations will remain under threat. The ask is not unreasonable. Finland, for example, has set its net zero goal deadline to 2035, a decision it claims is based on science and equity.

Will the Taoiseach consider committing to advancing the advice of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, to set our climate goals for 2040? Will he talk about where we are now in meeting current climate goals for net zero by 2050?

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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The IPCC report is not about goals or ambition because the Government clearly has those. It is the rate of pace at which we are putting the items in our action plan into action. I will break that down in respect of how it can work in rural Ireland and urban areas, especially in the area of electric vehicle, EV, sales. The good news is EV sales increased by 50% in the first couple of months of 2023 compared with the previous year. That is good. The bad news is fossil fuel cars grew even more as regards units sold. We need to see more incentives for the purchase of EV cars in order to get people away from fossil fuel cars. Average car journeys are by far the greatest in rural areas.

In urban areas, we need to ramp up the roll-out of BusConnects. I would like an update on where BusConnects is in Cork and Dublin. It is a political hot potato but in order to address this issue we need to be climate brave. We need to start rolling out the likes of BusConnects and getting it up and running.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Friends of the Earth report, which is still left out in the cold, is just the latest report we have, either from environmental or anti-poverty groups, that points out the grant system for retrofit is massively skewed in favour of the well-off and is of little, if any, use to low-income households, particularly those in the private rented sector, although similar things could be said about those in social housing. Private rented tenants have no say whatsoever over whether they get their house retrofitted and, therefore, are impacted by high-energy bills and, very often, cold conditions, with the obvious climate implications. Similarly, the roll-out of social housing retrofitting is absolutely glacial, with tiny numbers involved.

In reality, the grants are going to the wealthiest people. In fact, the ordinary taxpayer and low- and middle-income households are effectively subsidising the retrofitting of rich people's houses. Does the Taoiseach acknowledge that? Has he any intention to do anything about it?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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The UN IPCC climate report, published yesterday, represents a last wake-up call. Decisions made this decade will have an impact lasting thousands of years. Although the window of opportunity is closing, the report makes clear some feasible and effective options are available to us to reduce emissions. I will ask the Taoiseach about three of them. First, the report states we must phase out fossil fuels if we are to limit global warming. Countries will have to cease all licensing or funding of new oil and gas and stop expansion of existing reserves. Can the Taoiseach say that Ireland will ensure that exploration licences now in place are stopped from progressing any further? My second question relates to land use. When will the emission reduction targets for land use be agreed? When will the land use review be published?

On SUVs and transport, yesterday we heard Professor Peter Thorne of Maynooth University warning of the climate consequences of SUVs, in the context of the number of these new diesel and petrol SUV cars on our roads being a big part of our climate problem. Has the Government considered a progressive, weight-based tax, such as that introduced in France, to penalise the use of these fossil fuel guzzling and extremely large SUV cars?

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The recent elections in the Netherlands have sent shockwaves through its political establishment. Hundreds of thousands of citizens broke with all expectations and voted for the farmers' party in protest against their political establishment. We have a similar disconnect between many people in regional and rural Ireland and the political bubble that exists in this country. The majority of political parties in this country are heavily Dublin based. Indeed, ten counties currently have no Minister, yet in one Dublin constituency, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, all the Deputies are Ministers. Currently, 40% of all Ministers in this country are from Dublin.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am not a Minister.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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Has Deputy Devlin been promoted?

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Farmers in Ireland are suffering big style currently. One third of farmers are currently making a loss. They are not even making a living out of their farms. Another one third of farmers currently have to work off the farm to make a living. Only a third of existing farmers are making a living out of their farms. Many of them are living in fear. They want to do the right thing on climate change but they feel this Government is disproportionate in loading the climate costs on their families, while at the same time opening data centres, importing Brazilian beef etc. When will this Government treat rural and regional Ireland as more than a box-ticking exercise? I apologise to Deputy Boyd Barrett. I got the constituency wrong.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Deputy was within time.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Tóibín. I think he was referring to the constituency of Dublin Rathdown rather than the county area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. As I often say to Deputies from all parts of Ireland, there is a lot more to Dublin than Dublin 2, 4 and 6. I often hear comments from rural Deputies about Ireland beyond the M50. I am somebody from Dublin who has lived beyond the M50 for almost my entire life. Those of us from Dublin need to get around the country a lot and get to know rural Ireland and every county in it. I make a point of getting to every county at least once a year. Perhaps Deputies from outside Dublin need to get to know it a little better because how many know where Dublin 24 is, for example, or Dublin 13? There is a lot more to Dublin than Dublin 2, 4 and 6, or Dublin 1. I guarantee that Dublin Rathdown is not the same place as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. That is another day's work.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Dublin 2, 4, and 6 are great.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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They are great but there is more to Dublin than Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 1.

The publication of the IPCC report yesterday confirms that with global warming already having reached 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, climate change is causing widespread and increasingly irreversible losses and damages. We have a rapidly closing window of opportunity to maintain a liveable future for humanity. The report brings together the latest scientific evidence on climate change solutions to inform policymaking at national and international levels. The IPCC has demonstrated there are options for all sectors to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

The increased use of renewable energy, improved energy efficiency and fuel switching have reduced global carbon dioxide emissions across global industry and the energy sector. I look forward to working with our international partners not just at the next UN climate conference, COP28 in Dubai later this year, but also on an ongoing and continuing basis. Equity, rights-based approaches and a just transition must also be essential to our actions. Ireland is committed to ensuring that as we increase international finance to ensure developing countries can develop in a climate-friendly way, these funds are aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and must be directed at the most vulnerable.

Yesterday's report clearly reinforces the message that the time to act is now. The Government is doing so by passing one of the most ambitious climate laws in the world and mobilising the public and private sectors to reduce emissions. The Climate Action Plan 2023 sets out in detail how Ireland can accelerate the actions that are needed to respond to this crisis by putting climate solutions at the centre of Ireland’s social and economic development.

I was asked about motor vehicle duty and vehicle registration tax. I had understood that was emissions-based. I will double-check on that. I think that is how it has been redesigned over the past couple of years to make it much more emissions-based so that the higher emission vehicles pay higher taxes.

We are not issuing any new exploration licences and have not done so for a number of years but there are existing ones which are still valid. Our view is that we will continue to need to use natural gas, perhaps for decades. Natural gas is a much cleaner fuel than coal, which we also use, and oil, which we use on occasion. It makes sense to see natural gas as a transition fuel. Indeed, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has signed off in recent weeks on the purchase of new gas turbines to guarantee energy security next winter. For so long as we are using natural gas as a transitional fuel, it makes sense to use it rather than to import it. More emissions arise from bringing gas in from other parts of the world than from using our own gas if we have it.

On electric vehicles, the main investment at the moment is around charging points. We believe this is the most appropriate way to invest Government resources.

There are a number of different BusConnects projects but many of them are now in planning and are with An Bord Pleanála. That applies to the DART+ and metro projects as well. I hope that An Bord Pleanála can turn those applications around pretty quickly. We have been talking about things like a metro for Dublin and DART expansion since the 1980s and 1990s. We have never got those projects to the point of being in An Bord Pleanála. I hope this will be the year when we get railway orders for DART expansion and for metro so that we can start building them in the next two to three years. The same thing applies to BusConnects for Dublin and the other cities, but of course that is a more recent project.

We are not proposing any changes to the climate goals. As we all know, we will struggle to meet the targets of 51% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Our expanding population and economy, our settlement patterns and our agricultural base make it much harder for us to achieve those targets than many other countries. We are committed to doing this, however. We must ensure it is done in a way that is fair and does not result in increased employment or lower living standards for people.

On the retrofit programme, I hear the criticisms from the Deputies. I know that when we discuss this at Cabinet committees the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will tell a very different story and will produce statistics and information to show that the retrofit programme is going well with good uptake. There is a special provision around the significant number of people who qualify for the fuel allowance. The grants they can receive are much higher than those received by people who do not qualify. We have to acknowledge that there are real constraints because we are asking our construction sector to do so much at the moment. We are asking it to build many new houses, build out public infrastructure, build renewable energy and retrofit other houses. It creates a real constraint on us. I hear what Deputies are saying about the delays in the applications being processed and we are working on that.