Climate Action Plan
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Paul Lawless (AON), Mayo

Climate Action Plan 2025 commits to scaling nature-based strategies, yet the Climate Change Advisory Council of Ireland has warned that we could face €26 billion in EU fines if we fail to deliver adequate protection measures. At the same time, and counter to the plan's commitment, the Government is actually considering licensing over 40,000 tonnes of seaweed to be harvested off the coast of counties Mayo and Galway. Removing seaweed, which is a vital natural buffer against flooding, will put communities at risk along with livelihoods, biodiversity and the coast itself. To make matters worse, Ireland still has no national coastal management strategy. This is overdue since 2021, with a draft sitting idle since 2023. How can the climate action plan claim to deliver climate resilience and protect communities from flooding when solutions it commits to are underfunded? It is critically important that seaweed across the west coast is protected for coastal communities.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17