Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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600. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide a timeline for the development of her Department's specific climate change targets; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49567/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department is currently in discussions with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in the development of specific climate change targets as part of an overall whole of government climate change action plan.

Energy usage is the main contributor to climate change and the Department and agencies under its aegis are mitigating this as part of the Public Sector Energy NEAP 33% 2020 energy saving targets. As at the end of 2017, an energy saving of 32.6% was recorded by my Department and its agencies against the 2009 baseline figures using the SEAI Public Sector Energy Reporting Programme.

My Department also actively engages with the OPW in their OPW's Optimising Power at work energy saving scheme.

The Department continues to ensure that procurement policies include provisions for Green Procurement. Energy efficiency criteria are included in requests for tenders (RFTs) where relevant, including IT equipment and non-IT equipment.

Energy, including electricity, is procured centrally through the Office of Government Procurement to obtain savings through economies of scale.