Further delays in drawing up the 2026 national Climate Action Plan mean it will not be published for at least another few months.
TDs and senators were told that drafting of the plan had only begun “recently”.
The annual plan was meant to be published last December or January to guide climate-action efforts over the year ahead.
Already five months late, the Public Accounts Committee was told on Thursday it would be published “in the coming months”.
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Oonagh Buckley, secretary general of the Department of Climate, told the committee that Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien “has recently instructed us to proceed with drafting it”.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who sought the update, said it would be good practice to have a plan in place in advance of the year in which the plan was meant to be implemented.
Buckley played down the significance of the annual plan. “The vast majority of measures are multiannual. Measures in individual years are not terribly impactful,” she said.
The impact that the plans have had to date will become clearer next week when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publishes its annual greenhouse gas projections.
The EPA last year forecast that Ireland’s emissions would fall by 23 per cent at best by 2030 – a long way short of the 51 per cent required by law.
Buckley said it was hoped next week’s figures would show a slight improvement, but she acknowledged the country was well off target.
Fine Gael TD Grace Boland said in light of the figures being well off target, it was “intolerable” that the Department had underspent on a number of programmes in recent years.
The committee heard that most of the €190 million collected in windfall tax on energy companies’ profits, during the last oil and gas crisis during the early days of the Ukraine war, was unspent.
Buckley said the rules around the fund made it difficult to find schemes to give the money to.
An allocation of €37 million was committed to a non-residential retrofit scheme but just €15.5 million had been used.
The separate Climate Action Fund had spent just €261 million of the €523.8 million available for projects that cut emissions and improve energy efficiency.
Buckley said €479 million had been allocated to projects but the funds had not all been drawn down. She said ultimately, some allocations might have to be withdrawn if they were not taken up.
A low-interest Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme, which was underwritten by the State to a value of €500 million, had sanctioned loans totalling just €47 million.
“We would like to see it more heavily promoted,” Buckley said. She added that the Department was working with public bodies and the banks “to make sure they do point customers in the right direction”.
