Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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38. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his proposed plans to meet environmental challenges such as flooding arising from climate change and the need for revitalising of rural and urban communities. [18462/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The extent of the environmental challenge posed by climate change is well understood by Government and this understanding is reflected in the prominence given to climate change in the Programme for a Partnership Governmentand in the establishment of a new Department of Communications, Climate Change and Environment, pending the making of the necessary Government orders.

Existing policy in this area is set out in the National Policy Position on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development(2014) which provides a high-level policy direction for the adoption and implementation by Government of plans to enable the State to move to a low-carbon economy by 2050; statutory authority for these mitigation and adaptation plans was subsequently provided for in the Climate Actionand Low Carbon Development Act 2015.

While climate policy has been and must continue to be focussed on limiting greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with our national, EU and international obligations, taking steps to adjust human and natural systems in response to existing or expected climate change in order to prevent or moderate environmental damage, or to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise, is also an urgent policy priority.

Under section 5 of the 2015 Act, the Minister must submit to Government for approval (not later than December 2017), a National Adaptation Framework (NAF). The NAF will specify the national strategy for the application of adaptation measures in different sectors and by local authorities in their administrative areas in order to reduce the vulnerability of the State to the negative effects of climate change and to exploit any beneficial opportunities. The 2015 Act also provides that relevant Ministers will be required to develop sectoral adaptation plans which will specify the adaptation policy measures the Minister in question proposes to adopt; these measures will include, for example, adaptation actions to be implemented by OPW and other responsible Departments and agencies in relation to flood risk management.

The policy response to climate change in terms of mitigation of emissions of greenhouse gases and adaptation to the negative impacts will, over time, help to protect people, buildings, infrastructure, businesses and ecosystems and these benefits will apply to both rural and urban communities. Apart from climate change related considerations, revitalisation of these communities is also recognised as a priority in the Programme for a Partnership Government, with a series of specific actions identified to facilitate the regeneration of urban centres. In this context, the Government will seek to introduce a new Town and Village Renewal Scheme to support the revitalisation of towns and villages and improve the living and working environment of communities.

In addition, it is also proposed to examine a series of further initiatives, including the introduction of a scheme, similar to the‘Living City Initiative’,to regenerate urban centres and villages; the establishment of a national register of derelict sites, in addition to the new vacant site levy, to bring vacant and underutilised sites into beneficial use for housing and urban regeneration purposes; the mandating of local authorities with better land management powers; reclassifying and incentivising the use of under-utilised or vacant areas over ground floor premises in urban areas; and examining the scope to reform the Derelict Sites Act to tackle the under-use and hoarding of derelict land.