Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 November 2023
29. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for an overview of the progress made to date under national strategic outcome 8 of the National Development Plan 2021-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52299/23]
View answerWill the Minister of State give an overview of the progress made to date under national strategic outcome 8 of the National Development Plan and if he will make a statement on the matter with specific reference, if he can, to flood prevention schemes, given recent incidents of flooding in Cork and beyond.
National Strategic Objective, NSO, 8 relates to the transition to a low carbon and climate-resilient society. The next decade is critical in order to address the climate crisis and we have significantly stepped up our climate ambition by committing to reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Action Plan 2023, which was published in December 2022, sets out the actions, measures, policies and plans to meet the emission reduction targets required by our carbon budgets and sectoral emission ceilings. The plan contains actions Ireland must implement to meet our emissions reduction targets and to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050.
Over the period to 2030 an additional €5 billion of the expected €9.5 billion in additional carbon tax receipts will be invested in energy efficiency. Strategic investment priorities for the energy sector include supporting the delivery of offshore renewable energy, retrofitting homes and the installation of heat pumps. In September, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, announced the provisional results of the third renewable electricity support scheme, RESS auction. RESS 3 builds on the successes of the first two onshore auctions. The volumes procured represent a 12% increase on current renewables, keeping Ireland on the right trajectory to achieve the targets set out in the Climate Action Plan 2023. In 2022, 27,200 home energy upgrades were supported by grant schemes and this year we have seen almost 39,000 home energy upgrades to the end of October. This is an increase of 112% on the same period of last year and above the overall target of 37,000 for 2023. More than 5,000 hectares of Bord na Móna peatlands were rehabilitated last year as part of the enhanced decommissioning, rehabilitation and restoration scheme. That was funded via the national recovery and resilience plan as part of the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. This is one of the largest peatland rehabilitation projects in Europe with more than 10,000 hectares rehabilitated to date. Strategic investment priorities for transport include the transition to a low or zero emissions public bus fleet. To this end, 172 new electric buses for public service obligation, PSO, fleets were delivered in 2022, including 107 fully electric vehicles and 24 hybrids.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. NSO 8 covers a variety of topics. As I mentioned at the outset, the issues around flooding and flood prevention schemes are most pertinent to me. It is my understanding that is also included under NSO 8. If the Minister of State does not have the details of the 150 active schemes at the moment, I would appreciate if he could provide a breakdown as supplementary information, of how many of those schemes have commenced; how many are pending environmental impact assessments, EIAs or further EIAs; how many are out to public consultation; how many are caught up in planning permission and whether there are any judicial review challenges.
Will the Minister of State provide, by way of supplementary reply, any timeline for completion of those various flood relief schemes right across the country?
That is a very detailed supplementary question. The Deputy will appreciate that I do not have all the details to hand. I could not do justice to the question by answering it orally right now but I will provide all the column headings according to all the questions the Deputy has asked and will give him in tabulated form the answer to his question in consultation with my colleague, Deputy O'Donovan.
I appreciate that. I know the phrasing of the question is quite generic in nature. As recently as last Friday I was in Mallow town and had the opportunity to visit a number of one-stop shops that are providing services for people who are engaged in the process of retrofitting their houses. Even they noted when I was visiting them last Friday with Billy Kelleher that there is a significant uptake, as the Minister of State evidenced in his initial response. I will provide the questions I have outlined to the Minister of State in writing for the purposes of clarity. There is a common trend in here this evening, from listening to other Deputies, about how many schemes have been caught up in various delays. I would be interested in following up on this and I will provide the Minister of State with those specific questions.
The one-stop shops are now up to speed. We have delivered double the number of retrofits in this period of the year compared to the same period last year. We need to do that. The retrofit programme for the decade involves an exponential increase in the number of retrofits being delivered until we reach 500,000 homes retrofitted by 2030. We cannot do that without having a large programme of skill development at the same time. We expect to need 30,000 trained people to be able to deliver those retrofits every year. The Minister for higher education, Deputy Harris, has been delivering on what we asked him to do. We initially said 3,000 and he has been delivering more than 3,000 people skilled in retrofits. We have a clear programme and a clear objective of 500,000 people in warm cosy homes by 2030. Most of the money being spent is being spent on schemes to alleviate energy poverty so the money is targeted towards those people who need it most.
