I welcome the Ceann Comhairle's remarks. He has this party's full support in the work ahead. I thank the Clerk of the Dáil and everyone involved in the work this week. There will be time this afternoon to reflect further on that report.

The report issued overnight by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, shows that Ireland will exceed its climate change emissions targets by up to 6% for 2018, which is the third year in a row we will have exceeded those targets. We are 5 million tonnes in excess of the target to which we all signed up. The bottom line is that emissions are increasing in several sectors. Our climate response seems to be more spin than substance and is completely at odds with our international requirements. There was a small reduction in output in 2018, but that more to do with a plant being out of commission for repairs than a policy response by the Government. The EPA has again highlighted that we are likely to miss our 2020 climate commitment by well over 90%, which shows how far away we are from the Government's aspirations and spin. That failure, in turn, will result in penalties of hundreds of millions of euro that could be spent elsewhere. The analysis confirms that Ireland has "drifted off target", to quote the Tánaiste's colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, during the nine years the Government has been in office. It shows that the Government is wedded to our climate laggard tag. The Tánaiste may point to the new climate plan, but we have yet to see much of the substance behind that plan's aspirations, implementation plans that can be measured, or targets against which agencies and sectors can be held. What is the Tánaiste's response to the EPA report? Has the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment measured where the 2019 figures stand at this stage in the year? What plans does the Government have to reduce the 2019 and 2020 figures in order that we can send a signal that we are taking our responsibilities seriously?

The Ceann Comhairle will have complete support from my party in the work that needs to be done in response to the report laid before the Oireachtas today. We look forward to an appropriate debate later this afternoon on the contents of that report.

The EPA report on the 2018 emissions outcome reinforces the importance of implementing the climate action plan, which, as the Deputy will be aware, was designed and published after 2018. Ireland has drifted off target, and we must implement a decisive policy shift each and every year. That is what we are committed to doing. The 2020 budget was an important watershed in that regard. Earlier this year, the Government published the climate action plan, which sets out the actions we need to take to ensure we meet our 2030 climate commitments, putting us on a trajectory to net zero emissions by 2050.

I welcome the EPA's report today, for our plan, which is a roadmap forward to decarbonise and secure a sustainable and more resilient Ireland for future generations.

The figures released today reflect the position prior to the publication of the national climate action plan. While the EPA statement today shows that emissions have fallen for the second year in a row, the decrease is too small and is driven, as the Deputy correctly said, by some temporary occurrences, primarily the temporary closure of Moneypoint in 2018. We still saw an increase in emissions from households and in transport and agriculture last year.

I note the commitments of the EPA today, which call for the swift implementation of the action plan. This is our pathway forward and today's results underline the urgency of implementing those actions in full across the Government. Quite frankly, we will need the support of Fianna Fáil in our efforts to do that, as the Government seeks support in the House to make the changes necessary.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, has taken a new and different approach. He has only been in office for 12 months and has made an extraordinary impact in changing the approach to climate policy in Ireland, and the Government will continue to see that plan through.

I thank the Tánaiste. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, has been in office 2011 in various Departments, a period during which a lot of the targets were missed. The Government has my party's support. It was my party that proposed that the carbon tax funding be ring-fenced for initiatives such as increasing the quality of our housing supply and a just transition for the midlands in particular. That ring-fencing must proceed. Can the Tánaiste state whether legislation is required to ensure that ring-fencing will happen? When will the ring-fencing be introduced?

The climate action plan only goes part of the way. We need to look at investing in retrofitting, in communities that need to make a just transition and in bringing people with us. I spoke to the Taoiseach yesterday about the new CAP programme. Farmers must be given the chance to lead this discussion and realise that there is something in it for them. They have to be compensated for whatever losses are coming. We cannot continue to keep publishing plans and engaging in PR opportunities in the one electric bus in the city. We need action and the EPA report should be the final wake-up call.

We are beyond a wake-up call. We have an action plan and it is being implemented. The budget that has been passed, on which the Deputy made a contribution, is proof of that. We are investing more in electric vehicles. We have ambitious targets and we need to meet them. We are investing more in warmer homes and have a budget to match.

We have a commitment to have a radical change in how we manage waste from next year on. We are decarbonising the energy supply. Some 30% of our energy needs are now being provided by renewables and by 2030, that figure needs to be 70%. We have a new approach to just transition, in particular in the midlands in the context of the challenge faced by Bord na Móna. We have put money behind those new approaches.

We will appoint a just transition commissioner in order that we have somebody who is managing the transition, with a significant budget, and works with the affected sectors and people and families involved. We have set aside €7 million to restore 1,800 ha of bogs between 2020 and 2024. We are at the point of implementing an action plan. Each Department has targets it needs to meet by law. That is uncomfortable for some people but there is now a need for our action plan to be quite uncomfortable, in terms of the pressure it puts on people to deliver on the targets on which they must deliver across sectors in a way that is just and fair to the people on whom we are imposing that new policy.