Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
217. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the contingency plans which exist for the potential €26 billion in fines Ireland could face if climate targets are missed; if he has met with the Minister for the Environment; Climate and Communications or the Taoiseach to address this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72580/25]
View answerFirstly, I would like to address the Deputy by saying that I am aware of the latest report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) and the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) highlighting the potential compliance cost implications of climate change and emissions reductions targets for Ireland. I can assure the Deputy that similar analysis is being undertaken across Government in this area, and my officials are engaged with other Departments on this work. It must be acknowledged however that there is considerable uncertainty around the emissions figures and therefore cost estimates are speculative at this stage.
Secondly, the main objective of Government policy has been, and continues to be, achieving compliance with our targets through reducing emissions and increasing renewable energy generation. The agreed Programme for Government restates our determination that Ireland, together with our EU partners, will play its full part in tackling climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has shown that emissions reductions are being made with Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions decreasing for the last three years. However, we in Government also acknowledge that there is an imperative to go further taking climate action faster and at scale, particularly over the next five years.
To this extent, our contingency plan is clearly stated across the many iterations of our Climate Action Plans. The Climate Action Plan 2025 (CAP25) provides a roadmap for halving Ireland’s emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by no later than 2050, as committed to in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. The Government has been delivering by improving our electricity system, through investing in renewables sources of energy, by increasing public transport as well as the electric vehicle (EV) share of passenger cars, by ensuring over half-a-million people insulate their homes with technologies like heat pumps and district heating, and by supporting nature restoration, to name but a few measures.
Finally, as Deputy will be aware, Government is committed to a carbon tax regime that is progressive with revenue raised from increases in the carbon tax since 2020 being allocated for expenditure on climate action and the just transition. The additional revenue raised by increasing the carbon tax is ring-fenced and used to enable transitional changes, to encourage the greening of agriculture, and to provide targeted social welfare and other measures to prevent energy poverty. For your information, more than €1 billion of carbon tax revenue was allocated as part of Budget 2026 to climate action measures, including sustainable farming and protection of the most energy-insecure in society.
