Written answers

Wednesday, 17 October 2018

Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment

National Mitigation Plan Implementation

Photo of Thomas PringleThomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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195. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of the committees, working groups and related co-ordination bodies that are involved in the implementation of the national mitigation plan 2017, the climate elements of the NDP and the development of the draft national climate and energy plan; the details and minutes of all of these meetings since the adoption of the 2017 NMP; and the way in which these committees report to the Houses of the Oireachtas and its committees. [42709/18]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Ireland's first National Mitigation Plan, which the then Minister published in July 2017, is a whole-of-Government Plan, reflecting, in particular, the central roles of the Ministers responsible for the four key sectors with the most significant contribution to national emissions -Electricity Generation; the Built Environment; Transport; and Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use.

The implementation of the Plan is overseen by a Climate Action High Level Steering Group, which is chaired at Ministerial level and which is comprised of senior officials from all relevant Government Departments and Agencies. The group meets on a quarterly basis and provides progress updates on the actions and measures committed to under the Plan itself. This group, in turn, reports to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, chaired by An Taoiseach.

Technical capacity for climate action policy development and implementation is provided through the Technical Research and Modelling Group (TRAM), which was established by Government Decision in 2015 and is chaired by my Department. TRAM is a high level cross-departmental technical group, with representation from relevant Government Departments and Agencies and reports to the Climate Action High Level Steering Group as well as to the Senior Officials Group to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure.

Significant TRAM outputs are generally published on my Department’s website  and these have helped to inform ongoing policy development, including that of the National Mitigation Plan. As the Deputy will appreciate, given the business of an inter-Departmental working group such as this, there are also a number of ongoing outputs from TRAM which are either not in the nature of formal studies or are part of ongoing policy development processes and are therefore not published by the Department.

My Department is also working closely with other relevant Departments and Agencies on the preparation of the National Energy and Climate Plan through the same structures described above. Preparation of this Plan has in turn been informed by work already undertaken to prepare the Energy White Paper, the National Mitigation Plan, the National Adaptation Framework, and the National Development Plan (NDP).

In accordance with the framework provided by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, the Government must prepare and submit to the Oireachtas an Annual Transition Statement. In support of this written Statement I, as well as other relevant Ministers, provide an oral report to each House. This process ensures that responsible Ministers are directly accountable to the Oireachtas to ensure real progress is made in reducing emissions in their respective sectors. I expect to be in position to lay the 2018 Annual Transition Statement before the Houses shortly.

As the Deputy is aware, a new Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action has also been established by the Oireachtas to take forward consideration of the third report and recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly entitled ‘How the State can make Ireland a Leader in tackling Climate Change’ and to report to the Houses by the end of January 2019. A number of representatives of Government Departments and Agencies as well as a number of other organisations have met the Committee to assist it in its work.

In relation to the National Development Plan, the governance aspects of this are in the first instance a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. As I understand, a high-level Project Ireland 2040 Delivery Board has been established and is jointly chaired by the Secretaries-General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform  and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, to provide strategic direction and leadership to both the NDP and the National Planning Framework implementation process.

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