Climate Change Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Ciarán Ahern (LAB), Dublin South-West

We had a great summer here. We all enjoyed the bit of heat, but it is the second year in a row where we have experienced our hottest summer on record. Temperatures that used to be anomalies in the past are now becoming consistent. It is that direction of travel that we are really concerned about, because we all know it has such huge impacts on our society. This is the case in urban areas when it comes to a lack of green spaces. Even new apartment designs that are single aspect do not allow for draughts to come through apartments. We have huge societal issues that we have to grasp here. This is aside from the impact it is going to have on our agricultural sector, our growers and all of that as well. There will also be an impact on our biodiversity from the wildfires we saw across huge swathes of our mountains and forests during the summer. In my area in Dublin South-West, this included the beautiful Featherbeds, where we had disastrous wildfires. We need a co-ordinated approach. The Minister of State spoke about local authorities, but what is the co-ordinated approach?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17