National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-25
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Eoin Hayes (SD), Dublin Bay South

The National Oil Reserves Agency gave €100 million, or more than 80% of the levy, to the climate action fund that was set up by an amendment to the legislation in 2020. It turns out that is virtually the entirety of all funding for the climate action fund. The fund was set up to support a few really important things, as detailed in its 2024 annual report. In that year, it gave €8 million to a community climate action programme for local authorities, €10 million to the school photovoltaic programme to fund solar panels for schools, €17 million to the Bórd na Móna bog rehabilitation scheme, some of which was perhaps spent in County Offaly, and €58 million to the public sector energy efficiency scheme to reduce energy demand, which one might think would reduce prices.
This is not about strategic oil reserves, relief for consumers or good governance. It is an open raiding of the climate action fund in the middle of an energy crisis. The Government gave a tax cut to developers and fast food chains in the latest budget but that was not enough. Now the Minister wants to steal the future of climate action while he is at it, with no oversight and no transparency. Everything is being hidden from the Oireachtas and even from the Government's own backbenchers. The Minister's actions will deprive this country of the climate action this crisis has shown it desperately needs.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-25