Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the final Climate Action Plan 2023 progress report, published by his Department in March 2024. [21666/24]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the final Climate Action Plan 2023 progress report, published by his Department in March 2024. [22346/24]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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11. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the final Climate Action Plan 2023 progress report, published by his Department in March 2024. [22691/24]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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12. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the final Climate Action Plan 2023 progress report, published by his Department in March 2024. [22693/24]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 13, inclusive, together.

The Department of the Taoiseach prepares progress reports on the delivery of measures committed to under the climate action plan. These progress reports provide a detailed breakdown of completed and delayed actions and are published online, once considered by Government. The final progress report relating to the Climate Action Plan 2023, CAP 23, was published on 5 March last. It provides information on actions that were due to be completed in quarter 4 of 2023.

The report is framed around the six high-impact sectors for climate action, comprising agriculture, transport, electricity, buildings, land use and industry. The report also provides updates on established performance indicators, sectoral emissions trends and high-impact actions. In total, 161 new actions were scheduled to be completed in quarter 4 of 2023. Ninety-six of those, or 60%, were delivered during the three months in question. For 2023 as a whole, 188 of 290 actions were delivered, giving an overall implementation rate of 65% for CAP 23.

High-impact actions completed in quarter 4 of 2023 included 65 new and enhanced services in 2023 under the Connecting Ireland public transport programme, linking 194 towns nationwide; a record budget allocation for Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, retrofit schemes, which supported over 47,800 property upgrades in 2023, a 76% increase on 2022 delivery; releasing a new national adaptation framework for public consultation; delivery of green skills apprenticeships, including new modules and courses in near-zero energy buildings and modern methods of construction; and commencing the solar for schools programme, which will roll out on a phased basis to include 4,000 schools nationwide.

The 2024 update of the climate action plan continues this focus on delivery of high-impact actions, including those from last year that were not completed by year end, as well as new actions included for 2024. The most recent Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, inventory figures show that Ireland’s emissions fell by nearly 2% between 2021 and 2022. While the EPA has not yet released its figures for 2023, published figures from the SEAI suggest that energy emissions fell by 7% overall with emissions from electricity falling by 21%. Continued, and indeed faster, delivery of actions under the climate action plan is essential in the face of our commitment to extremely challenging, legally-binding and essential EU and national emissions reduction targets.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Electricity emissions reductions are significantly contributed to by imported electricity. That fact should not be lost.

There are carbon budgets and sectoral emission ceilings out to 2030 but there is no plan to deliver emissions reductions to meet those targets. In fact, including the 5.25 megatonnes unallocated on an annual basis with all of the measures proposed by the Government would take us to only 42% reduction.

When will the issue of the unallocated emissions reductions be sorted? When will a plan be prepared to meet the 51% target?

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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The European far right rallied in Madrid last Sunday, where they were addressed by Argentina's President Javier Milei who described climate change as a socialist lie. Of course, it does not take far-right leaders to jet in from other continents to come out with this kind of nonsense. The European far right is well capable of putting it forward itself. Alternative für Deutschland is saying in this European election campaign that CO2 is not a pollutant but an indispensable component of all life. Giorgia Meloni's climate minister has said if the climate is changing, it is because of the climate. He said he did not know how much climate change was due to man and how much to the Earth's climate change.

These people having real influence in the next European Parliament could be a disaster for the climate and for the young generation particular. I note the group the Taoiseach's party is affiliated to in the European Parliament has not ruled out doing a deal with the European far right after the elections. The far right is gaining some ground, in large measure on the basis of a protest against massive social inequality which is being presided over by centre-left and centre-right parties supporting capitalism. It will be important on 7 June and that weekend throughout Europe that people vote not only against the European far right and their crazy ideas but the parties that have helped to give them a leg up by their failed policies.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Any sensible person knows there is a climate and biodiversity emergency and that, if we do not address them, we will be in trouble. As much as the far right want to deny it, the impacts will cost our society very dearly. We have to recognise that large numbers of people have become alienated from the climate action and biodiversity action agenda because they see climate action as a punishment rather than as improving their lives. We have to change this. If we do not recognise that we are losing the room with a lot of people on this issue, we are heading for trouble. In fact, we are on the way there already.

What could we do to change this? We need to stop punishing people with various taxes, such as carbon taxes or excise fuel increases, and instead make people's lives better with climate action. The pace, for example, of the retrofit of council houses is pathetically slow. If we accelerated it and retrofitted people's homes whereby the homes were warmer and bills decreased, and this was done on scale, it would give people confidence in climate action. If we made public transport free and improved the quality and frequency of it, it would give people confidence in climate action. We need a radical reset, to use the language of the Housing Commission, in climate action so it makes ordinary people's lives better.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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Transport is one of the top two emitting sectors of greenhouse gases. Most of this comes from private cars. To get these numbers down and improve people's lives on a daily basis, we need a massive modal shift away from cars, and people sitting in traffic for an hour on their way to work and for an hour on their way home, into quality public transport and active travel. This means investing many more billions to ensure public transport becomes frequent, green and fast for everyone in the country and provides a real alternative to the private car. It also means making public transport free to incentivise people with cars to make the shift. There is plenty of evidence from where free public transport has been introduced that a whole number of people give up their car entirely. For example, in Marseille in France, approximately 10% of people gave up their cars. At present it is often cheaper, once you already own a car, to use it as much as possible rather than to take public transport. Instead we need to switch those incentives and make public transport free for all.

Last week I was in Limerick to launch the campaign of our mayoral candidate, Ruairí Fahy. I was very taken by one of his campaign proposals to make Limerick a pilot city for free public transport. It would join the more than 100 cities throughout the world that have introduced free public transport. Would the Taoiseach support the demand for the idea of a pilot project and a trial for free public transport in Limerick which, if successful, would be rolled out throughout the country?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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To respond to Deputy O'Rourke, yesterday the Government considered the climate action plan for 2024 which has now been published. Next year we will begin the process of the allocation of the unallocated emissions. We have given consideration, and the Minister Deputy Ryan has shared this with the House previously, to a number of ways this can be addressed, including technology. I am very happy to exchange further information on this in terms of where our thinking is at. I will also get Deputy O'Rourke a direct timeline for the 51%.

To respond to Deputy Barry, I oppose the far right in everything I do. I have a different political view on this but it is important that parties of the centre do not allow vacuums in debates on policies such as migration and stop vacuums that are exploited by the far right. The best way of keeping the far right out of power is to continue to elect centrist parties so that the EPP has enough critical mass in the next European Parliament. Obviously we have a very different view on this. The people will decide in the election.

I was agreeing with Deputy Boyd Barrett for the first couple of sentences and then we had a point of disagreement. I do believe we have to bring people with us when it comes to climate. One of the big challenges we face at present is that often, and I do not just mean for us in Ireland but for the world, climate can seem terribly lectury, so to speak. The science is very clear. There is a climate emergency, the planet is on fire and we need to take significant action. I am fully signed up for all of the climate targets. When one portrays this as meaning the family farm is no longer viable, this zero-sum game does not work. We have to incentivise and help people to make the transition so they can continue to produce food and have food security so we can continue to have jobs and we can look at the opportunities in terms of jobs in the green economy.

Where we diverge is on the issue of taxation. By ring-fencing the money we have received we have seen significant benefit. I will quote the figures off the top of my head and I believe them to be correct. I heard them yesterday and I do not have them written in front of me. I believe we are now seeing 1,000 homes a week being retrofitted in Ireland and we are seeing approximately 100 homes a week putting solar panels on their roofs. We are beginning to see real progress on the scale we need to see in retrofitting. Be they local authority homes or private homes, it is being funded through the carbon tax. We have a different view on how to fund it but we are putting the money from the carbon tax into retrofitting, fuel poverty and the fuel allowance.

To respond to Deputy Murphy, we have taken a number of steps on reducing the cost of public transport for everybody, and we are going beyond the reduction for everyone with an even larger targeted reduction for students and young people. This is working well. We have seen a significant increase in people using public transport. We have also rolled out many new transport routes, particularly in rural Ireland. There are no plans at present to make public transport free but I am very encouraged by the positive reaction we have seen to a reduction in fares.