Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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671. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the national mitigation plan to transition to a low carbon economy; when he anticipates this will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3769/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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As provided for in Section 4(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, I, as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, must submit a National Mitigation Plan (NMP) to Government for approval not later than 10th June 2017. The preparation of the plan is designed to be a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to tackling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this context, each Minister with responsibility for the largest emitting sectors -  electricity generation, the built environment, transport and agriculture - has been requested by Government to develop sectoral mitigation measures. The primary objective of the first NMP will be to track implementation of measures already underway and identify potential additional measures that, in the medium to longer term, will reduce GHG emissions so that we can make progress towards achieving our national transition objective to become a low carbon, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable economy by the end of 2050.

Work is well under way on the development of the NMP which must be underpinned by appropriate technical, environmental, economic and financial analysis. A statutory consultation, required under Section 4(8) of the Act, is planned for mid-March 2017 when a draft NMP, complete with draft Strategic Environmental and Appropriate Assessment Reports, will be published prior to a final NMP being submitted to Government for approval in early June.

In the interim, I am this week publishing a briefing document on the development of the NMP which I hope will help prepare the ground for the statutory consultation to follow in mid-March. This briefing document will address the four key sectors concerned and will highlight some key questions to be considered in terms of how best we should position Ireland in taking this first step in achieving the national transition objectiveby 2050.