Today's Environmental Protection Agency report confirms Ireland is nowhere near on-track to meet our climate targets. In fact, we are projected to achieve barely half of the emissions reductions required by law. In that context, the climate Minister’s interview earlier today with David McCullagh on RTÉ was extraordinary. The Minister urged us to look on the bright side throughout but, however he tries to spin it - he is good at spinning - there is no silver lining. The Green Party’s exit from Government marked the death knell of Fianna Fáil’s ambition on climate. Take this year’s climate action plan. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, has confirmed it will not arrive until quarter 3. A climate plan for 2026 published with just three months left in the year is laughable. We know why it has not arrived. It is because the Government has no plan and the numbers are getting worse. This is also why the Government sat on the land use review for months on end. Emissions from that sector are projected to soar by more than 70%. Michael Healy-Rae may have resigned as Minister of State but we now know he is far from the most sizeable thing being emitted from the forestry sector. While emissions rise, the Government is dismantling crucial protections for our environment. Take the Critical Infrastructure Bill. It fundamentally undermines the climate Act, allowing major infrastructure projects to bypass climate considerations entirely. This was a sly move by the Government and, appallingly, it was supported by almost all Opposition parties, except for the Labour Party and the Green Party. A false choice has been cynically presented: Ireland must either build infrastructure or decarbonise. That is nonsense. We know we can build homes, transport and energy infrastructure while also cutting emissions. As our Labour Party climate spokesperson, Ciarán Ahern TD, has pointed out, other countries are doing this. The Government is doing neither at the scale required. Ireland’s infrastructure deficit is our single biggest economic challenge. Offshore wind is delayed.
Sentiment score: -0.06
Upgrades to the grid crawl at a snail’s pace. The Government is missing emissions targets and ripping up climate protections. It is a famine of ambition. Let us take transport. The Taoiseach's rhetoric increasingly tries to manufacture an urban-rural divide on climate and transport. Of course, we know some people will always need cars in both rural and urban areas.
Sentiment score: -0.05
However, children are breathing polluted air, our roads are choked with traffic, we have some of the highest asthma rates in Europe and in a cost of living crisis, households are spending a fortune on fuel and car costs because they have no other choice. There is endless outrage in this House expressed about bike sheds, particularly from the largest Opposition party, but we know a single car parking space costs up to €70,000 and the OPW spends more than €1 million a year leasing parking spaces for civil servants. Cycling saves money and reduces emissions. The Government is failing on active travel, failing on climate targets and failing to deliver infrastructure at scale.
Sentiment score: -0.45
Where is the progress? Why can the Government not take climate seriously?
Sentiment score: 0.28
The Green Party is not in government.
Sentiment score: 0.40
Oh, no.
Sentiment score: -0.30
That is exactly it. We acknowledge where there has been progress but it is the scale of the progress that is the problem. It is the pace of change that is the problem. There is no sense from the Government of the necessary ambition or urgency to take the further measures required to achieve the emissions reductions we have signed up to. The figures speak for themselves. The Taoiseach may seek to scapegoat climate for delays in infrastructure. The children's hospital has seen chronic delays. This was not due to climate or environmental concerns. There are failings in the Government on delivering infrastructure projects.
Sentiment score: -0.15
I reference the children's hospital because the Taoiseach is saying the environment is being weaponised to delay infrastructure provision but there are plenty of delays in the Government's infrastructure projects which have no basis in climate considerations. The figures in the EPA report speak for themselves. The Taoiseach's climate Minister may spin a good spin and he sought to blag on housing figures as housing Minister.
Sentiment score: -0.03
He was doing the same this morning on climate.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The figures speak for themselves.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Taoiseach cannot get away with this on climate.
Sentiment score: 0.00
We need to deliver reductions at a greater pace.
Sentiment score: 0.36
Yes but from a high-----
Sentiment score: 0.21