Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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115. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the findings of the completed land use review will be incorporated into the Climate Action Plan. [27729/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The 'Programme for Government: Our Shared Future' committed to ‘undertake a national land use review, including farmland, forests, and peatlands, so that optimal land use options inform all relevant Government decisions. The review will balance environmental, social, and economic considerations and involve a process of evaluation of the ecological characteristics of the land. It will include consideration of emissions to air and water, carbon sequestration, and climate adaptation challenges.

The first phase of the Land-use Review was led by the Environmental Protection Agency and focused on evidence gathering. It was completed and published in March 2023. The final report consists of 10 documents and 19 recommendations. The recommendations are grouped into three broad categories, identifying a need to improve our monitoring systems, mapping capabilities and how we analyse and apply this evidence in decision making.

The second phase, the approach to which was also approved by Government in March 2023, follows on from the first, and is further developing the knowledge, analysis, and shared understanding necessary for consideration of how Ireland’s land can be used in a way that meets the Government objectives of improving socioeconomic, climate, biodiversity, water, and air quality outcomes.

The Minster for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform and I have provided resources and a framework to deliver on this commitment.

As with phase one, this is a review of Ireland’s land use, not formulation of a land use strategy. A final report will be completed by Q1, 2025 at which stage relevant findings can be incorporated into the Climate Action Plan as appropriate.