Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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127. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the progress made in relation to the action in Climate Action Plan 2024 which reads DECC will assess whether mandated caps on any increase in fossil fuel demand by large energy users could be put in place from 2026; and when the assessment is due to be published. [50230/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, along with the SEAI, has considered a range of policy options available including the possibility of policies that would prohibit, or impose a levy on, the use of fossil fuels in industry under certain conditions or in industrial applications that meet particular criteria after specific milestone dates.

Following consideration, this policy option is not currently being progressed given that it would be challenging to implement in such a way as to have an impact within the timeline 2026-2030. It would be necessary to give several years notice to market, to include a lengthy glidepath before phase out, and it would not be feasible to mandate a ‘switch off’ or a cap on operational fossil systems by 2030 especially in hard-to-decarbonise industrial applications.