Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

These amendments are tabled following reflection and further legal advice from the Attorney General's office and others in regard to the two amendments from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Senators, in particular Senator Paul Daly, that were agreed on Committee Stage. The amendments seek to ensure that we have the ability to account for removals and emissions reductions on sinks, and to give the Government and the Minister the powers to be able to regulate in that regard, in particular in respect of the evolving accounting rules, which are constantly evolving, with regard to how they are measured and accounted for and how we then generate income streams for the farming communities from some of the nature-based solutions that will provide sinks for carbon and other greenhouse gases.

These amendments amend the amendments agreed on Committee Stage to provide greater clarity on how the Minister will apply the sectoral regulations to regulate evolving accounting mechanisms, having regard to the rules applying in the EU which are also set out within EU regulation, and the changes that will occur in those regulations, for example, the provision from 2026 for the EU to include wetlands within its regulatory system and other changes that we can expect in the international and European accounting rules and mechanisms.

The amendments give the Minister the ability, through regulation, to designate how the carbon budgets are accounted for and how the removals and the emissions reductions on the sinks are accounted for through this process.That is why I brought forward this amendment.