Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-11
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

I thank both Deputies. I will try to deal with both of their interventions. Deputy Boland can be assured that everything we do is to try to accelerate the actions we are taking in relation to climate. It is the number one crisis worldwide. Ireland, as a country, has shown that it is able to pivot and change quite quickly. I used the example earlier that we have doubled wind capacity in under ten years. In 2015, there was 2 MW of solar energy in our system. By the end of this year, there will be 3 GW. What does that mean? Just 1 GW is enough to power 500,000 homes. That is where solar has moved quickly. We are seeing a rooftop revolution and well over 120,000 homes with solar panels.
I completely agree about public transport. That is where the national development plan that we all agreed is important. One euro of every four invested between now and the end of this decade is being invested in transport. There is a public transport deficit that we need to catch up with and address with major projects that the Deputy and I are aware of.
In the year before last, which is the last full year for which we have figures, there were 365 million public transport passenger journeys. People are responding. We need to accelerate projects. We regularly discuss the need to get new services in place. The Deputy can be assured that we will do that.
The rural focus on electric vehicles is something Deputy Daly has been calling for. I have also, as part of the additional funding I have brought forward, reduced the value of cars for which grants are applicable from €60,000 to €50,00 because I do not want to grant-aid luxury cars. We want to focus on middle income families and families who actually need that assistance. Under the scrappage scheme, the grant is €8,500. New EV cars can now be bought for close to €20,000. I will not mention which brands; people can have a look. There are good cars available there. I will keep an open mind on second-hand cars but we need to do this through dealerships for certification and application reasons. It is something we will continue to look at.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-11