Today's Environmental Protection Agency report confirms Ireland is nowhere near on-track to meet our climate targets. In fact, we are projected to achieve barely half of the emissions reductions required by law. In that context, the climate Minister’s interview earlier today with David McCullagh on RTÉ was extraordinary. The Minister urged us to look on the bright side throughout but, however he tries to spin it - he is good at spinning - there is no silver lining. The Green Party’s exit from Government marked the death knell of Fianna Fáil’s ambition on climate. Take this year’s climate action plan. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, has confirmed it will not arrive until quarter 3. A climate plan for 2026 published with just three months left in the year is laughable.

We know why it has not arrived. It is because the Government has no plan and the numbers are getting worse. This is also why the Government sat on the land use review for months on end. Emissions from that sector are projected to soar by more than 70%. Michael Healy-Rae may have resigned as Minister of State but we now know he is far from the most sizeable thing being emitted from the forestry sector. While emissions rise, the Government is dismantling crucial protections for our environment. Take the Critical Infrastructure Bill. It fundamentally undermines the climate Act, allowing major infrastructure projects to bypass climate considerations entirely. This was a sly move by the Government and, appallingly, it was supported by almost all Opposition parties, except for the Labour Party and the Green Party. A false choice has been cynically presented: Ireland must either build infrastructure or decarbonise. That is nonsense.

We know we can build homes, transport and energy infrastructure while also cutting emissions. As our Labour Party climate spokesperson, Ciarán Ahern TD, has pointed out, other countries are doing this. The Government is doing neither at the scale required. Ireland’s infrastructure deficit is our single biggest economic challenge. Offshore wind is delayed.

It is not delayed.

Upgrades to the grid crawl at a snail’s pace. The Government is missing emissions targets and ripping up climate protections. It is a famine of ambition. Let us take transport. The Taoiseach's rhetoric increasingly tries to manufacture an urban-rural divide on climate and transport. Of course, we know some people will always need cars in both rural and urban areas.

That is great.

However, children are breathing polluted air, our roads are choked with traffic, we have some of the highest asthma rates in Europe and in a cost of living crisis, households are spending a fortune on fuel and car costs because they have no other choice. There is endless outrage in this House expressed about bike sheds, particularly from the largest Opposition party, but we know a single car parking space costs up to €70,000 and the OPW spends more than €1 million a year leasing parking spaces for civil servants. Cycling saves money and reduces emissions. The Government is failing on active travel, failing on climate targets and failing to deliver infrastructure at scale.

The Deputy's time is up. She should have asked her question in the time.

Where is the progress? Why can the Government not take climate seriously?

I reject very strongly the Deputy's assertion that we are not taking climate seriously. Her reference to the Green Party not being in government is false.

The Green Party is not in government.

We are doing things differently because there is a problem, which the Deputy referenced in terms of the Critical Infrastructure Bill. One of the issues is the fundamentalist, purist and perfect is always the enemy of the good. We will achieve far more on climate than perhaps the Labour Party approach or, at times, the Green Party approach because we need to bring people with us. That consensus has broken down. I can see it in the Dáil in the past few years. The Government's commitment has not lessened on climate.

We will get there in a more practical and effective way. To be frank, the Deputy is saying we can build infrastructure - we cannot, in many instances, because environmental law has been weaponised at every turn.

Oh, no.

It has been. The Deputy needs to face up to it and not be naive. At every turn, significant infrastructure and even infrastructure that will improve the climate has faced challenges because environmental considerations have been weaponised. That is a problem and a challenge. It is a problem all over Europe, by the way. It is all over Europe. That is why some of the renewable energy directives, REDs, were brought in at European level to make sure the overall good is prioritised, as with offshore wind farms. These will benefit climate but because of some aspects related to nature they can be delayed interminably. Choices always have to be made with development. It is not apple pie in every single scenario.

The bottom line is that Ireland now has the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years. The Deputy said it is rising. Our emissions are decreasing. One of the successful things we have been able to do is decouple economic growth from emissions. The EPA's latest projections predict we are likely to either achieve our first carbon budget or marginally exceed it, as well as showing significant emissions reductions across major sectors of the economy.

Emissions in agriculture are set to decrease by between 4% and 19%, and those in transport are set to decrease by between 16% and 28%. These reductions in our largest sectors are significant and should not be dismissed.

Emissions from electricity generation are estimated to reduce by between 53% and 60% by 2030. With additional measures, we are projected to meet our overall Carbon Budget 1 programme target, with only three sectors set to miss their 2025 sectoral emissions ceilings: transport, industry and public and commercial buildings. The Deputy did not refer to any of that in her opening remarks. The projected reduction now has increased to 25%, as opposed to 23%, which was the previous assessment of the EPA. Therefore, we are making progress. The issue is how we can make progress faster.

That is exactly it. We acknowledge where there has been progress but it is the scale of the progress that is the problem. It is the pace of change that is the problem. There is no sense from the Government of the necessary ambition or urgency to take the further measures required to achieve the emissions reductions we have signed up to. The figures speak for themselves. The Taoiseach may seek to scapegoat climate for delays in infrastructure. The children's hospital has seen chronic delays. This was not due to climate or environmental concerns. There are failings in the Government on delivering infrastructure projects.

The children's hospital.

I reference the children's hospital because the Taoiseach is saying the environment is being weaponised to delay infrastructure provision but there are plenty of delays in the Government's infrastructure projects which have no basis in climate considerations. The figures in the EPA report speak for themselves. The Taoiseach's climate Minister may spin a good spin and he sought to blag on housing figures as housing Minister.

I thank the Deputy. Her time is up. The Taoiseach will respond.

He was doing the same this morning on climate.

Deputy, the time is up.

The figures speak for themselves.

The Taoiseach to respond.

The Taoiseach cannot get away with this on climate.

Deputy Bacik, there is no point in us talking over each other. Your time is up.

We need to deliver reductions at a greater pace.

We need an honest debate. Let us deal with the facts. Ireland now has the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years.

Yes but from a high-----

No. Hold on. Look at what else has happened in the 35 years. That is in the context of an increase in population of 1.5 million, more than 1 million new homes and over 1 million more vehicles on the road. Those are dramatic statistics. We are growing as a population. We were relatively under-populated historically but our population is now growing dramatically. With 1.5 million more people, 1 million additional homes and 1 million additional vehicles, we have the lowest level of emissions in 35 years. We have decoupled economic growth from this issue, which is key.

I set up a clearing house in my Department to drive offshore wind energy development. We are not delaying it. We brought industry in to obtain a systemic assessment of the issues that could be a factor in developing offshore wind energy generation. The Deputy knows what has happened in the US, where there is a public policy against offshore wind. That is impacting on the economics. We are driving forward-----

We must move on. The Taoiseach's time is up.

-----and we have offshore wind proposals in planning.