Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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109. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the work undertaken by his Department to ensure adequate resourcing of lead Departments for climate adaptation-related activities; his views on the report of the Climate Advisory Council’s Annual Review ‘Preparing for Ireland’s Changing Climate’ 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4898/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Climate Change Advisory Council 2024 report. The impacts of recent storms, including Storm Éowyn, have illustrated the importance of the need for greater prioritisation of climate adaptation, in particular the need to improve the climate resilience of our infrastructure.

Significant resources are available through the National Development Plan which outlines the allocations for capital investment for the period to 2030. Individual Government Departments decide on the most appropriate prioritisation and application of the funding allocated to them, including the allocation of resources for climate change adaptation.

Expenditure ceilings for climate adaptation, as for all spending priorities, are decided as part of the annual estimates process. A total of €3.9bn of expenditure allocated in 2025 is assessed as favourable to climate change adaptation including funding for flood risk management, infrastructure retrofitting, international climate finance, funding for the provision of climate services, adaptive and sustainable farming practices, and research programmes across a number of Departments and State bodies.

In June 2024, the Government approved and published a new National Adaptation Framework (NAF). The NAF requires 13 key sectors that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change across 7 lead Government Departments to develop Sectoral Adaptation Plans (SAPs) under sectoral guidelines published by my Department. The development of these SAPs is ongoing, including for those the electricity and gas networks and transport infrastructure sectors directly under my remit. Officials from my Department are on the SAP planning teams and are collaborating with the Sectors, the EPA and the CCAC to progress this work. All SAPs must be completed to seek Government approval by 30 September 2025.

Completed SAPs should clearly set out the adaptation priorities for key sectors including an assessment of resources required to implement SAP actions.