Climate Action Plan
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank all of the Deputies who asked questions. There were quite a number. Deputy Byrne raised the issue of the offshore wind clearinghouse and the private wires Bill. The offshore wind clearinghouse is where we bring in the industry to meet Departments and regulators to discuss generic issues. It is not specific to any company but is to cut through a lot of the to'ing and fro'ing and ask what the potential barriers are to getting offshore wind farms over the line. There have been different challenges. In more recent times, the inflationary costs in supply chains have increased somewhat. There have been negative challenges because of US policy towards wind energy and its impact on some of the companies. However, we are progressing. We are putting in a huge effort. I spoke to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, this morning about all of this. He is very focused. He has the task force also. The industry has been reassured about the Government's commitment to really getting the first couple of offshore wind platforms going, certainly from 2030 onwards. That is key. The private wires Bill is progressing. It is important legislation and I look forward to it coming through.
Deputy Whitmore raised the issue of public transport and the Go-Ahead service. She should complain to the National Transport Authority, which awards the contracts. If there are issues with the contracts, they should be raised with the NTA.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised an important issue. It is a serious public health issue as well as a health and safety issue. I will check with the national emergency co-ordination group to see whether there is an evaluation of what happened and whether we have a report outlining what transpired. I do think we have a challenge with co-ordination between agencies. We have challenges with the readiness and the capacity of local authorities in terms of emergencies, be it a flooding emergency or a gorse fire, as in this case. Last week, I convened a meeting in respect of the last storm, focusing on co-ordination and people working together to make sure that someone is in charge if something happens and that it gets done. I do not think we are at the optimal stage yet, if I am honest, but I am pursuing it. I am looking at this thing structurally as well to see what needs to be done to make sure there are clear lines. In fairness, a lot of people did a lot of good work during the last storm. A lot of local authority officials were out in the middle of the night helping families get through it. The local authority in Carlow, for example, saved the day for a big housing estate. There are positives and negatives. The issue is that it is not pulling together. The toxicity and the impact on public health is very serious and I will come back to Deputy Boyd Barrett on the evaluation of that.
I disagree fundamentally with Deputy Murphy in that I do not think there is a huge disparity or contrast with what we said in COP. It is very important that we went to Belém. Other countries did not go at all. Ireland felt that if there was any time we should attend COP, it was last year, to make sure that momentum and critical mass were maintained internationally and globally. The emergency reserve capacity for LNG is a security issue. It is wrong of Deputy Murphy to say that it flies in the face of the climate change agenda. We simply have to have security. If anything were to happen to the gas interconnectors, our economy would not sustain a week or two. I do not know whether Deputy Murphy believes that or not, or whether he believes they are in-----

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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