Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rejected Opposition claims the Government is “engaging in a form of climate denial”, with an insistence that 2030 climate targets will be met.
Mr Martin said the Government’s updated Climate Action Plan “will be published in the next number of weeks”. He also stressed that the “game-changer” and “big story” will be “our success and the pace at which we can deliver offshore renewables and solar power”.
He was responding in the Dáil to Opposition criticism following publication of the report of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council. Based on current trajectories, the report warns, Ireland will miss its 2030 target of a 51 per cent emissions reduction, with potential EU fines of up to €26 billion.
Social Democrats climate spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said it is time for the Government “to take your head out of the sand”, while Labour leader Ivana Bacik pointed to “really serious impacts on generations to come who will see a future stolen from them”.
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Ms Whitmore told the Taoiseach “you are actually engaging in a form of climate denial, because in the face of all the evidence...you still seemingly believe that we are going to meet our targets”.
Ms Bacik said the Minister for Climate has not published the Climate Action Plan “despite the fact we are now in the third month of 2025″. The Labour leader said “the report is significant but it is not news”. She added that the Government “must have known about the missed targets” because so many public bodies have told them about failures.
“While an ignorant failure of policy could be forgiven, this is a conscious failure of political will. There is no accountability for the Government’s failure either.”
The Taoiseach had said there was “no resiling” in Government on climate action, but, she said, there is a clear rowing back on the position taken by the previous government that included the Green Party.
“Only months after denying that this would happen the Government will now import dirty LNG (liquefied natural gas) into our country, and it has abandoned in its programme for government the spending ratio for active travel and public transport.
“The Government’s programme will instead favour the building of, as Trump might say, ‘roads, baby, roads’,” Ms Bacik said.
But Mr Martin insisted the Government has “made very significant progress over the last four years”. There has been a “massive population increase” since 1990 of more than one and a half million people, and the economy had grown very strongly since then. “Despite all the increased activity, which ordinarily is related to higher emissions, we managed to reduce emissions, particularly in recent years, and I think the Government is very committed to doing that.”
He added that “the big story will be our success and the pace at which we can deliver offshore renewables and solar power, which I think would be the game-changer”.
The Taoiseach said “a huge retrofitting programme is under way, and our public transport usage is up 25 per cent. We are fully committed to all the public transport initiatives we committed to in the previous government.”
He also hit out at Ms Bacik’s criticism over “dirty LNG” following the Government’s approval of a plan to develop a State-led LNG terminal. “We have a responsibility that if anything was to happen or interrupt our current gas supplies, we need a backup. It would be irresponsible not to do that,” he said, adding that the move is consistent with EU frameworks and legal advice.
