Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I did not realise there were five more.
In response to Deputy Whitmore, there will be no retreating or withdrawal from climate change during our Presidency. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is very committed to this. He will be taking a leadership role in respect of Europe's presentation at COP. There have been different perspectives across the European Union. People in some member states want to reform and revise the EU ETS, for example. However, the evidence is overwhelming, as the Deputy very articulately narrated, in terms of what is happening in Spain. It is quite shocking in terms of the number of people dying because of excess heat, the forest fires, the hectares of land burned - all of which, by the way, is having a compounding effect on climate. These are not without consequence in terms of climate.
Deputy Malcolm Byrne was at one with Deputy Whitmore. He said we can enjoy the weather here but it is in Ireland now. The levels of heat we are experiencing are unprecedented. We are breaking heat records in Ireland. We had a terrible fire in Crosshaven in my own constituency on Monday evening. We have to be very vigilant. We need to invest more in adaptation because climate change is here. It is happening. It is having real-life impacts as we speak, and we do have to deal with that. Deputy Byrne illustrated this when he related how his sister leaves Seville in the summer to get out of the heat. It is extremely difficult. We are not retreating from it in terms of the European Presidency. It will be top of the agenda.
In response to Deputy Paul Murphy, I am not familiar with the specific case of Fergie Chambers. We do know the Spanish authorities are resilient. I have no doubt the Spanish Government will take a fair and honourable approach to the case the Deputy has raised. I am not familiar with the background to it, if I am honest, so therefore I cannot comment in any great detail on it.
Deputy Heneghan referred to plug-in solar. He is plugged in himself on that issue; there is no doubt about that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15