Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 May 2026
257. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the extent to which continued Exchequer support for fossil fuel related measures is consistent with Ireland’s climate targets and its commitments under the Climate Action Plan; the assessment carried out by his Department in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32464/26]
View answerAs part of Budget 2019, Ireland committed to the implementation of a series of progressive green budgeting reforms, intended to better embed climate and environmental goals within the budgetary process, with a view to improving outcomes.
As part of this commitment, my Department and the Department of Finance have been progressively implementing a series of reforms to better understand the climate and environmental impacts of public expenditure and the taxation system, to ensure budgetary processes are conductive to effective decision making.
This work has included green budget tagging, climate and environmental assessment of capital spending and improved capital appraisal tools, and targeted Spending Reviews on specific policies, as well as an ongoing programme of work of macroeconomic modelling to better understand the costs and impacts of climate change and climate action.
Ireland has performed well in this area having ranked second highest in the recent OECD green survey of green budgeting practices, and engages transnationally with the EU, OECD and national administrations to develop and implement best practice.
The Minister for Finance has responsibility for taxation policy, including excise on fossil fuels, and would be better placed to advise on such matters, and on his Department’s environmental analysis of the taxation system.
Since 2019, my Department has tracked climate-related expenditure, in line with Climate Action Plan commitments by developing and applying definitions to identify and track government spending that may be having a negative impact on climate and environmental outcomes.
The main output of this work is captured in the annual publication of the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) in December of each year, which includes the results of green budgeting analysis, with an accompanying paper published at this time which outlines the analysis and results.
This monitoring now captures both potentially favourable and unfavourable expenditure and direct and indirect effects that individual expenditure lines may have on climate and environmental outcomes, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of how public resourcing is aligned with national climate objectives.
This analytical work also allows for consideration of how potentially climate unfavourable impacts can be mitigated, and, where that is not possible, highlights the scope for Government to potentially consider the possible adoption of other measures to offset the potentially unfavourable consequences of necessary expenditures.
Green budgeting plays an important role in effective expenditure reporting and prioritisation, increases transparency of Government climate action, and has the potential to support policy making which will result in better budgeting and improved environmental outcomes. This is an iterative process subject to ongoing review.
Further information on the green budgeting process can be found at: www.gov.ie/en/collection/a92af-green-budgeting/.
The Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment has responsibility for climate policy, and any further queries relating generally to climate policy should be directed towards him for appropriate response.
