Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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87. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the way in which the proposed national mitigation plan will help Ireland achieve its targets for CO2 reductions; the way it will help move both agriculture and transport sectors towards reduced reliance on fossil fuels and GHG; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29760/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I refer to the reply to Question No. 58 on today's Order Paper.  

The objective of Ireland’s first statutory National Mitigation Plan is to set out what Ireland is doing, and is planning to do, to further the national transition objective as set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, 2015. The Plan will focus on measures and actions to progress decarbonisation of four key sectors in our low carbon transition process, namely Electricity Generation; the Built Environment; Transport; and Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use.

The National Mitigation Plan has been prepared having regard to the provisions set out in the 2015 Act in close collaboration with all relevant Government Departments and, in particular, with the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport; Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government; and Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It should be noted that these Ministers have direct responsibility under the 2015 Act to prepare and adopt sectoral mitigation measures for their respective areas of responsibility for inclusion in the National Mitigation Plan. Relevant Ministers will also be obliged to report annually to the Oireachtas as part of the Annual Transition Statement required under the 2015 Act.

The final National Mitigation Plan sets out almost 80 measures in place and under consideration across the four key sectors and over 100 supporting actions to further progress these measures and to also further enable our decarbonisation transition.  At least half of these measures and actions relate to the Agriculture and Transport sectors.

It must be recognised that this Plan is a first step in what will be a work in progress, reflecting the reality of where we are in our decarbonisation transition having regard to a number of factors including curtailed public and private investment over the course of recent years. The Plan cannot provide a complete roadmap to achieve the national transition objective to 2050 but it will begin the process of development of medium- to long-term options to ensure that we are well positioned to take the necessary actions in the next and future decades. This will be an ongoing process aimed at incremental and permanent decarbonisation. The Plan will become a living document accessible on my Department's website, and will be updated on an on-going basis as analysis, dialogue and technological innovation generate further cost-effective sectoral mitigation options.