Ivana Bacik: Famine of Ambition - Government Failing on Climate

Taoiseach, today's Environmental Protection Agency report confirms Ireland is nowhere near on track to meet our climate targets. In fact we're projected to achieve barely half of the emissions reductions required by law. In that context the climate minister's interview earlier today with David McCulloch on RTE was extraordinary. The minister urged us to look on the bright sides throughout but Taoiseach, however he tries to spin it and he's good at spinning, there's 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. Minister O'Brien has confirmed it won't arrive until quarter three. A climate plan for 2026 published with just three months left in the year is laughable but we know why it hasn't arrived. It's because you have no plan and the numbers are getting worse. This is also why you sat on the land use report for months on end because emissions from that sector are projected to soar by more than 70%. Michael Healey-Ray may have resigned as Minister of State but we now know that he's far from the most sizable thing being emitted from the forestry sector. And while emissions rise Taoiseach, you're dismantling crucial protections for our environment. Take your critical infrastructure bill. It fundamentally undermines the Climate Act allowing major infrastructure projects to bypass climate considerations entirely. This was a sly move by government and appallingly supported by almost all opposition parties except for the Labour Party and the Green Party. You've cynically presented a false choice that Ireland must either build infrastructure or decarbonise and that's nonsense Taoiseach. We know that we can build homes, we can build transport and energy infrastructure while also cutting emissions. As our Labour climate spokesperson Ciarán O'Hearn TD has pointed out other countries are doing this but you're doing neither at the scale required. Ireland's infrastructure deficit is our single biggest economic challenge. Offshore wind is delayed. Upgrades to the grid crawl at a snail's pace. You're missing emission targets and ripping up climate protections. It's a famine of ambition. And take transport. Your rhetoric increasingly tries to manufacture an urban rural divide on climate on transport. But of course we know people will always need cars. Some people will always need cars in both rural and urban areas. But children are breathing polluted air. Our roads are choked with traffic. We've got 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've no other choice. There's endless outrage in this house expressed about bike sheds particularly from the largest opposition party. But we know that a single car parking space costs up to 70,000 euro and the OPW spends more than a million a year leasing parking spaces for civil servants. Cycling saves money and reduces emissions. But Taoiseach you're failing on active travel, you're failing on climate targets and you're failing to deliver climate... Thank you Deputy, time is up. Taoiseach to respond. Your time is up Deputy. You should have asked the question in time. Taoiseach. First of all I reject very strongly your assertion that we're not taking climate seriously and your reference to the Greens not being in government is false. But we are different. Because one problem and you referenced with in terms of the critic infrastructure bill. One of the issues is the fundamentalist and the purist and the perfect is always the enemy of the good. And we will achieve far more on climate than perhaps your approach or even at times the Green Party approach. Because we do need to bring people with us and that consensus has broken down. I can see it in the dial in in the last number of years. But government's commitment hasn't lessened in terms of climate. But we will get there in a more practical, more effective way. And to be frank with you, you are saying we can build infrastructure. We can't in many instances because environmental law has been weaponized at every turn. It has been. And you need to face up to it and don't be naive. At every turn. Significant infrastructure. Even infrastructure that will improve climate. Environmental considerations are being weaponized. That's a problem. That's a challenge. All over Europe by the way. All over Europe. That's why some of the red directives were brought in at European level. To make sure that the overall good as in offshore wind farms, which will benefit climate, but which because of some aspects to do with nature and so on can be delayed interminably. Choices always have to be made in terms of development. And it's not apple pie every way all along, you know, in every single scenario. The bottom line, Deputy, of course, is that Ireland now has the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years. You say it's rising. It's decreasing. Emissions are decreasing. One of the successful things we've been able to do, we've decoupled economic growth from and managed to reduce sorry from reduction in emissions. And the EPA's latest projections predict we're likely to either achieve our first carbon budget or marginally exceed it as well as showing significant emission reductions across major sectors of the economy. So emissions in agriculture are set to decrease by between 4% and 19%. Transport by between 16% and 28%. These reductions in our largest sectors are significant and shouldn't be dismissed. Emissions from electricity generation are estimated to reduce by between 53% and 60% by 2030. And under the with additional measures we are projected to meet our overall carbon budget one program with only three sectors set to miss their 2025 sectoral emission ceilings, transport industry and public and commercial buildings. You didn't reference any of that in your opening remarks. And the projected reduction now has an increase to 25% as opposed to previous assessments by the EPA that it would be a 23%. So we are making progress. Time is up Taoiseach. Deputy Batchick to respond please. Well that's exactly it Taoiseach. We acknowledge where there's been progress but it's the scale of the progress that's the problem. It's the pace of change that's the problem. And there's no sense from your government of the necessary ambition or urgency to take the further measures that are required to achieve the emissions reductions that we've signed up to. And the figures speak for themselves. You may seek to scapegoat climate for delays in infrastructure. The children's hospital, chronic delays. That wasn't due to climate or environmental concerns. There are failings in your own government on delivering infrastructure projects. The children's hospital Taoiseach. I reference that because you're saying the environment is being weaponized to delay infrastructure. But there's plenty of delays in your own government's infrastructure without any basis on climate considerations. The reality is the figures in the EPA report speak for themselves. And your climate minister, while he may spin a good spin and he sought to blag on housing figures as housing minister, he was doing the same this morning on climate. Deputy time is up. Taoiseach will respond. Deputy Batchick there's no point in us talking over one another. Your time is up. Look deputy we need an honest debate. And let's deal with the facts. Ireland now has the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years. Well hold on. Which is notable. No. Look at what else has happened in the 35 years. That's in the context of a 1.5 million increase in population. More than 1 million new homes and over 1 million extra vehicles on a road. Those are dramatic statistics. We're growing as a population. We had relatively underpopulation historically. We're growing dramatically. A million and a half people. A million extra homes. A million extra vehicles. And we have the lowest level of emissions in 35 years. So we've decoupled economic growth from this issue. Which is a key issue. I set up a clearinghouse in my department to drive offshore wind. There's no, we're not delaying offshore wind. We brought industry in to get a systemic assessment of what's, of the issues that may be a factor in terms of getting offshore wind. You know what's happened in the United States and the public policy against offshore wind. That's impacting on the economics. We move on Taoiseach. Your time is up. I call Deputy Charles Ward.