The Dáil has tonight (Wednesday, June 16) voted in favour of the climate action bill.
The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed with 129 votes in favour, and 10 votes against.
The 10 votes against the bill were: Seán Canney; Michael Collins; Michael Fitzmaurice; Danny Healy-Rae; Michael Healy-Rae; Mattie McGrath; Carol Nolan; Michael McNamara; Verona Murphy; and Peadar Tóibín.
The bill will go to the Seanad next week.
This development follows today’s Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) protest against the bill at the Convention Centre in Dublin.
‘No one talked down to or ignored’
Speaking in the Dáil tonight before the bill passed, Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan said that the climate transition cannot be made “if there is not a sense that it is for everyone”.
“It’s for every single person, every single community, no one will be talked down to or be ignored.
“I’m particularly attentive to the farming community in that regard.”
A number of opposition TDs spoke of their disappointment that the minister did not adopt the majority of the amendments put forward (over 200), with Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore saying:
“I was really looking forward to standing here and saying ‘well done’ for the work the minister has put in, and that this bill is as strong, ambitious and future-proofed as we need it to be.
“Unfortunately, I am not in a position to do that at this point.”
A number of TDs expressed their concerns over the impact of the bill on rural Ireland, with the leader of the Rural Independent Group Mattie McGrath claiming that as a result of the bill, people will be “in the dark, going around with candles and flashlights”.
He also said “we’re going to create another famine with food shortages and no light, we’re going to be in some sort of a pre-historic manhood in our country again if this nonsense goes on”.
The rural TDs also said there was not sufficient time given to debating the bill over the last number of weeks.
Independent TD Denis Naughten, who brought forward amendments on setting separate targets for biogenic methane at committee stage, told the Dáil that if the minister does not accept his amendments in the Seanad next week, he will give him “the opportunity to consider them again in the autumn”, when he will bring forward amending legislation.
Legally-binding framework for meeting climate targets
The climate bill will establish a legally-binding framework for meeting climate targets.
In March, the government approved the final text of the legislation to set Ireland “on the path to net zero emissions no later than 2050” and to reduce emissions by 51% by the end of this decade.
While there are “no legal obligations imposed on individual citizens, businesses or farmers” through the new bill, the meeting of agricultural targets is “very much around actions being done on every single one of those farms”.
Actions for each sector will be detailed in the Climate Action Plans, which must be updated annually. Government ministers will be responsible for achieving the legally-binding targets for their own sectoral area with each minister accounting for their performance towards sectoral targets and actions before an Oireachtas committee each year.
Local authorities must prepare individual Climate Action Plans which will include both mitigation and adaptation measures and will be updated every five years.
The preparation of the 2021 Climate Action Plan involved a public consultation, which closed on May 18.
Following this, it is expected that the plan will be published during the summer.