Skip to main content
Normal View

Climate Change Policy

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 February 2026

Wednesday, 25 February 2026

Questions (89)

Ciarán Ahern

Ciarán Ahern

Ciarán Ahern

Question:

89. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to provide details of all occasions in which he or his predecessors exercised the power conferred on them under Section 15(3) of the Climate Action & Low Carbon Development Act (2015). , which states that ‘the relevant Minister may, from time to time, give a direction to a relevant body requiring it to adopt such measures as are specified in the direction for the purposes of compliance by the relevant body with subsection (1)’; to provide the details of the direction given in all cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15248/26]

View answer

Written answers

Jack Chambers

Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation

Section 15(3) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 provides that “the relevant Minister may, from time to time, give a direction to a relevant body requiring it to adopt such measures as are specified in the direction for the purposes of compliance by the relevant body with subsection (1).” Section 15(1) states that a public body should be mindful of (a) the most recent approved national mitigation plan, (b) the most recent approved national adaptation framework / approved sectoral adaptation plan, (c) the furtherance of the national transition objective and (d) the objective of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change in the State.

My Department and the bodies under its aegis are obligated to provide annual returns to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on greenhouse gas usage and each body has a named Climate Champion. Information is provided directly to each relevant body by the SEAI and/or the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. I have not, nor have my predecessors, exercised the power conferred under Section 15(3) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.

Share