Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach the progress in emission reduction targets in areas that are the responsibility of his Department; which measures are particularly successful and which measures are underperforming. [67057/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government’s Climate Action Plan 2023 requires public sector bodies to put in place a Climate Action Roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030, and increase the improvement in energy efficiency to 50% by 2030.

The Department of the Taoiseach’s Climate Action Roadmap, which is kept under review, is published on gov.ie. It sets out an analysis of the Department's 2030 greenhouse gas target and estimates a current gap of 28 tonnes of CO2 from our 2030 target of 231 tonnes i.e. we are currently 12% short.

The Roadmap also identifies current and planned actions to bridge that gap. An important part of the bridging the current gap will be retrofit works to Government Buildings to be undertaken as part of the Office of Public Works (OPW) overall plan to make public buildings more energy efficient.

The Department established a Green Team in 2019 which has overseen implementation of a range of actions to reduce energy consumption and the Department’s emissions which include:

- Increased energy awareness among staff through communications;

- Actively supporting the Optimising Power at Work and Reduce your Use campaigns;

- LED /retrofit lighting inside and outside the building;

- Installation of sensor lighting where appropriate in the building;

- Replacement of hand dryers in bathrooms with energy efficient models;

- Reduction of energy usage in ICT server rooms; and

- Roll-out of Climate action training and its inclusion in the induction training programme for all new starters.