Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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78. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline the targets for 2024 for the climate division of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19814/24]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The priorities and planned outputs of each of the Divisions of my Department are laid out in Departmental business plans, as agreed and published each year on gov.ie. The business planning process takes place annually and enables my officials to plan and deliver on the strategic objectives outlined in the overarching Departmental Statement of Strategy 2023- 2025. The mission, strategic goals and strategic context in which the Department operates have led to the development of 25 Departmental priorities for 2024.

My Department’s Climate Division has five key divisional priorities.

It drives the implementation of the National Development Plan in the context of Project Ireland 2040 and has responsibility for the expenditure management and monitoring of a number of Votes, namely: Transport; Agriculture, Food & the Marine; the Office of Public Works; Communications, Climate and the Environment; Foreign Affairs and Overseas Development. Thus unifying internal responsibility for capital investment generally as well as expenditure management across each of those Government Departments key to achieving Ireland's climate goals.

The Division provides my Department's input to the overall response to the climate challenge with a particular focus on:

• ensuring investment is consistent with Ireland’s climate goals,
• that climate policy interventions deliver value for money and have regard to distributional consequences,
• the range of responses needed encompassing public and private sector investment, regulatory interventions and individual actions.

The 2024 Business Plan for my Department is now available on my Department’s website on gov.ie, with further detail included on the work of the Climate Division.