I also am happy to see climate protestors on the street. The voices of young people are often lost and what we hear instead are the reactionary forces against any climate actions we try to bring in. To see people cheering and going out to prove they care is motivating. Finalised emissions data for 2022 are not yet available but recent reports have indicated that Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2021 and may also have increased in 2022 as we emerged from Covid-19 restrictions. The EPA’s models for pro…

It takes all parties to solve this problem. This is not a partisan issue and it will not work if one party takes it one way. It does not work if parties condemn or denounce one another. It works if we can constructively work together. I am not long in politics but the Deputy knows that I am committed to climate action and that it is all I have thought about for most of the last 20 years. Therefore, it just bounces off me if I get accusations that I do not really care or want to do this. It is just not true and ever…

The Deputy has every right to criticise me and to ask questions. That is part of our system, I welcome that and I am not being defensive but we need to work constructively together to solve these problems.

What are we doing for climate action? We have four major areas: transport emissions; heating and building emissions; electricity emissions; and agriculture emissions. As the Deputy is aware, we are trying to revolutionise our transport system and we are trying to move people towards public transport. We are cutting public transport fares and we are spending €2 in public transport investment for every €1 we spend on new roads. The Deputy knows that we have significantly increased our investment in retrofitting and t…

The microgeneration support scheme sets out the overall framework to support the growth of microgeneration in Ireland. The scheme targets 380 MW of new microgeneration capacity by 2030. This amounts to 60,000 homes and 9,000 non-domestic installations, such as small farms, businesses, schools and community groups, generating over 300 GWh of renewable electricity per annum, with the potential to abate 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the lifetime of the installations. The microgeneration support …

The small-scale generation scheme will be launched later this year. The Deputy asked about legislation relating to private wire, which is to allow transmission of electricity by private sector companies without using EirGrid. I will have to come back to the Deputy with details rather than offer an answer now. There is significantly increased ambition for solar roll-out. It is not just for solar farms and it will not be concentrated on a small number of large corporate generators. The aim is to get it onto every agr…

I want as many people to have solar power as possible so that they are taking part and have a sense that they are contributing towards climate action and generating money. I want as many people as possible to take part in this. The Deputy is right to say that the deployment of solar generation is not entirely my responsibility. TAMS is a scheme of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Putting a solar panel on the roof of every school is a Department of Education scheme. We cannot have a situation wher…

I do not think anybody should scare the farming community. It is important to stick to the facts on this but also to speak honestly to farmers. The Government recently approved the first phase of the land-use review. This phase was a substantial evidence-gathering exercise, required to deliver on a key commitment in the programme for Government. A comprehensive evidence base is essential to informing Government decisions on the optimisation of our land use. Studies such as the draft EPA research report are part of …

The twin policy issues for agriculture are how we reduce emissions and sustain farming incomes at the same time. That is the challenge for our agricultural policy and where all our focus will be. The Deputy is right to say, and I am glad to hear him say, that farmers know there has to be change but that change has to be fair and it has to be explained. We should not do it without having proper evidence. It is not nebulous to collect the right data. Agricultural emissions are much more complex than they are in other…

When the pandemic ended, I had many opportunities to go round the country and speak to farmers. I took every opportunity I could to do that. What I took from farmers is that the drive for increased production has pushed down unit prices. It is more work for the same amount of money. Pushing up production has not worked. Fertiliser prices are a killer in that they are so high and are linked to the price of fossil fuels. The price of feed has gone up as well. While farmers' input costs have gone up, their output pric…

I thank Deputy Connolly for her very specific question for which I have a very specific answer. I spoke to the civil servant who issued the guidelines last Friday. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 strengthens the role of local authorities in climate action. The Act sets out a statutory requirement for each local authority to prepare a local authority climate action plan within 12 months from when the Minister formally issues a request to the sector to begin the preparation of such …

We can have all the strategies and plans in the world but they do not come to much if they are not implemented and if there is no political will. Those two ingredients are absolutely key to the difference between saying things and things actually happening. Do people want the things to happen and will they put in the work and the competence to make them happen? I have been on a local authority and I think the Deputy has probably spent time on a local authority too.

She will know that there are sometimes many discussions on local authorities which are not matched by action and that sometimes plans are brought forward which speak in very high terms and in noble ways about things but do not really translate into actions because the executive or the councillors themselves do not really want them to happen. For these plans to translate into actual climate action, we will need to see some bravery on the part of the councillors and the executive and we will need to see a mind shift …

We absolutely should be fair to local authorities. I do not have information for Deputy Connolly on the timeline that led to the issuing of the guidelines from last Friday; what the statutory timeline was; and what it ought to have been but I am willing to talk to the Deputy about it afterwards, if she wants to find out more information. What I am referring to with regard to local authorities is the problem where there is much discussion and talk about sustainable transport, for example, but when I go out to the lo…

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 strengthens the role of local authorities in climate action. The Act sets out a statutory requirement for each local authority to prepare a local authority climate action plan within 12 months from when the Minister issues a request to the sector to begin the preparation of such plans. The Minister issued this request last Friday. Each plan will include a decarbonisation zone which is selected by the local authority. A separate technical annex has b…

I thank the Deputy. She has a specific question about whether a legal direction has yet been issued. I have to check that. I know that the guidelines were circulated last Friday but I do not know whether they constitute a legal direction. I believe she asked for some history of how these decarbonisation zones were developed. She wants to know why we are issuing these guidelines.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage issued Circular LGSM/01/2021 in February 2021 to chief executives and directors of planning which provided instructions around developing zones for local authorities. Action 80 of the national Climate Action Plan 2021 required each local authority to integrate the development of its decarbonisation zone into its local authority climate action plan. Accordingly, each local authority will take forward its decarbonisation zone as a component of its local authori…

I am not sure what the idea is of asking a question and when I give a direct answer the Deputy asks the same question again. She has asked me whether a legal direction has been issued. What I told her is that I know the guidelines were circulated last Friday but I do not know whether they constitute a legal direction. I will find out and come back to her. That is really all I can say on that. In regard to decarbonisation zones, there is a five-stage process on this: to identify and define the decarbonisation zones,…

The draft agenda for the upcoming Environment Council indicates that the meeting will address the following matters: a general approach on the directive amending directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions; general approach on the Council directive on the landfill of waste; policy debates on the regulation on packaging and packaging waste, amending regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and directive (EU) 2019/904 and repealing directive 94/62/EC; and the regulation establishing a Union certification framework for carbon remov…

I thank the Deputy. She has described a project in Carlow which involves the restoration of a raised bog near the River Barrow and the historic site of St. Mullin's and has asked for an update on that. I do not have information to hand immediately, but I will be very happy to give her an update. I would also be happy to meet her, as I am happy to meet any Deputy, and give her a briefing on the status of the project.