I wish to start by joining in the tributes to Julie Lyons. We wish her and her family well on her well-deserved retirement after 34 years and seeing off nine taoisigh. We will miss her. My colleagues have reminded me just how kind and generous she has always been, particularly to the children who visit this House regularly. That has been really appreciated, and also the way she brought fun to our food - Christmas dinners in September and the legendary Markievicz trifles. I thank her very much for everything. She will be missed.

Hear, hear.

I wish to express my condemnation of the attacks last night on the global flotilla for Gaza. Our former constituency colleague Senator Chris Andrews is among the Irish citizens on the flotilla. I urge the Minister to work with EU colleagues to ensure the safety of all those on that flotilla. It is appalling to see attacks in this way, and it is yet another example of Israel feeling it can apparently act with impunity against international law.

This week, a stark warning on climate was issued to the Government. Research by Met Éireann and Maynooth University shows that Ireland experienced extraordinarily high temperatures during the summer of 2025 with average night-time temperatures beating all previous records. This is a terrifying finding. We are seeing catastrophic effects of climate change around the world – forest fires, mudslides and floods. Despite this, certain political leaders internationally are tragically turning away from the science and are embracing climate denial and conspiracy theories. We scoff at Trump’s appalling rhetoric on climate, but here at home since the Green Party left government, we have also seen a shift. The Government is not taking climate change seriously enough. This is having real impact on people's lives. Hard-pressed households are facing impossible choices this winter while struggling to cover home heating bills due to huge hikes in fossil fuel costs. A total of 300,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills. There is no sign of a winter moratorium on disconnections. There are still people impacted by the worst effects of climate change, such as Storm Éowyn and other storms. People are continuing to struggle with the cost of repairs. There are no big ideas on climate forthcoming from the Government. We saw the climate targets retained in the programme for Government. That was welcome. However, there was no pathway to achieve them. At the outset of the formation of this Government, there was the slashing of funds for sustainable travel, public transport, and cycling and active travel in favour of building more and more roads. The Government's policy continues to turn a blind eye to the impact of data centres on emissions, household bills and energy security. Retrofitting too often remains the preserve of the wealthy.

What we are asking for today is that the Government will give a commitment that this budget will take climate seriously and we will see serious measures adopted to invest in meeting our climate targets, making our communities more secure. We want to see the warmer homes scheme fixed so retrofitting can work for everyone. We want to see real State investment in developing renewables and rolling out offshore wind. Will the Government take climate seriously in this budget? Will the Minister give us a commitment today that it will do so?

I should have pointed out when I was responding to Deputy McDonald that my understanding is that Deputy Barry Heneghan is on that flotilla as well. I extend my best wishes to him. I express my concern and the concern of the wider Government for his safety as well as that of Senator Andrews.

Deputy Bacik is being unfair. It is inappropriate to compare the response of the Irish Government to climate change to that of the response of the current American Government. That is inappropriate and it is not based among any factual understanding. It is not a fair assessment of the work that is being done by this Government since it came into office. There is no doubt but that this Government recognises that climate change is probably the most pressing challenge for our society. There is full recognition within the Government that the impacts of climate change are still to be seen on a continuous basis. If we look at the excessive temperatures we are experiencing, not just in Ireland but throughout Europe, and if we look at the extreme weather events that seem to be more frequent now, that is the evidence of what is happening as a result of climate change.

I know the Minister, Darragh O'Brien, takes his role extremely seriously when it comes to combating climate change. If we look at what has happened from the data, we can see that the 2024 data from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, shows that Ireland's emissions continue to fall for the third year in a row and are at their lowest level in three decades compared with 1990 levels. Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 2% in 2024 compared with 2023 and decreased by 10.6% from 2021 to 2024 while the economy grew strongly. It is important to note that there has been considerable success achieved in the area of climate change. It is a demanding target to meet our emissions, but they are targets that the Government is committed to meeting and is making its best endeavours to ensure that we do meet them. Ireland is in a slightly different position to many European countries where they have not seen the same level of economic expansion and growth that we have. We have been able to combine that expansion while at the same time ensuring that we take our climate obligations seriously.

The Deputy highlighted data centres. It is important that we do not start targeting one aspect of our economy for the purpose of presenting it as being the villain in terms of the cause of climate change. We need to recognise that climate change and the response to it will only be achieved through a co-ordinated agreed response from the Government in which society takes its part in and business plays its part as well.

The Deputy also mentioned the issue of retrofitting.

In my answer to Deputy McDonald, I highlighted the money that is available for retrofitting. That is a scheme that needs to be availed of by members of the public. The Government is backing it with money to ensure we can save on energy consumption.

I acknowledge Deputy Heneghan, who is on the flotilla along with other Irish citizens. We wish them all well and hope for their safety.

This Government's response to me on climate is another classic exercise in deflection. We heard it earlier during the Government's response to the motion on child poverty and child homelessness. It was deflection and side stepping. Of course this Government is not as bad as Trump on climate but there has been a noticeable shift away from taking climate seriously. I mentioned the road building issue. Let us look at LNG as well. This summer, the Minister for climate wrote to the planning regulator giving a green light to LNG, a light that is green in the metaphorical sense only because it is a policy U-turn at a time when this country faces up to €26 billion in fines for failing to achieve our legally binding climate targets. With respect, we know Minister O'Brien has form for missing targets. He was the housing Minister in the previous Government and the approach to climate targets in this Government reminds me of Fianna Fáil's reliance on inflated home delivery targets during the last general election campaign.

Thank you, Deputy.

I think it is a fair critique to make. The Government is not taking climate seriously-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----and we need commitments in this budget that will reassure us and ensure we meet our targets.

The Deputy is ignoring the great work being done on securing renewable energy in this country. As of last February, 48% of Ireland's power was powered by onshore wind. They are facts the Deputy simply cannot ignore. The Deputy also talked about how we need to ensure there is no LNG plant. We have to provide people in this country with energy security.

Hear, hear.

It is absolutely essential we have a secure form of energy for them. The Deputy is aware of what is happening as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequence of that from a European perspective. We cannot continue to fund President Putin and Europe cannot continue to fund President Putin by purchasing his fossil oil.

A huge amount is being done. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, takes it extremely seriously. In terms of retrofitting, last year we hit an average of 1,000 retrofits per week. It is a huge achievement. In terms of greenways, there are many fine greenways around the country and more will be developed by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. We are responding to the energy crisis. We are taking it extremely seriously and the fruits of our work are becoming apparent to the Irish public.