Earth Day: TDs and senators urged to scrutinise climate policies

Damage wrought by Storm Éowyn in January included the destruction of this home in Connemara. Tuesday April 22 is Earth Day 2025.  Picture: Eamonn Farrell /RollingNews

Elected officials must now step up to scrutinise the Government’s climate action policies and make them accountable under climate law, an environmental group has said.

To mark Earth Day 2025, Friends of the Earth said that the Oireachtas must respond to the climate crisis with the “urgency and commitment it deserves”, and singled out TDs and senators who will form part of the soon-to-be-created committees as key in ensuring the Government takes the action required.

The setting up of committees in this Dáil had long been delayed due to the speaking rights row engulfing the Government, as the opposition railed against the changes proposed by the new coalition. Next month, committee chairs will be established in the Dáil and members chosen to form the committees.

A Government nominee will chair the committee on climate, environment and energy, although Friends of the Earth Ireland said that other committees are also important at feeding into climate action.

“This Earth Day also marks an important milestone: with a new Government in place and after a four-month delay, Oireachtas committees are finally being established,” Friends of the Earth Ireland campaigns director Jerry Mac Evilly said.

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"These committees, from energy to enterprise, housing, and foreign affairs, are all central to Government climate action and to accountability under our climate law. 

Committees must scrutinise policies which impact climate action, as well as the responses of ministers and state bodies to climate commitments.

These calls come after data showed 2024 to be the warmest year ever recorded in Europe with recent extreme weather events such as Storm Éowyn affecting Ireland.

Mr Mac Evilly said that the Government’s new Climate Action Plan published last week does not prevent reliance on fossil fuels or bring Ireland in line with binding pollution limits.

He said politicians on these committees must now hold the government to account and tackle the “twin elephants in the room”, of data centre expansion and an “escalating reliance” on fossil fuel infrastructure.

“Now is the time for the Oireachtas to rise to the challenge,” he said.

The call comes after a Government advisory body said the State’s green energy policy was heading “into fog” due to “contradictory” policies.

The National Economic and Social Council said on Friday that there is a lack of clarity and certainty about the future reliability of energy supply in Ireland.

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Its senior analyst Cathal Fitzgerald said: “Ireland aims to transform our power system over the next 25 years by reducing fossil fuel use and ramping up the use of solar and wind energy.

“This is key to addressing climate change. However, NESC’s research reveals uncertainty about the impact on our economic resilience in terms of energy reliability, prices, jobs, and exports.

“Visibility and certainty are low, and key actors are not on the same page from a strategic standpoint. But the energy transition is of paramount importance and must be progressed despite all the complexities involved.

“The cost of inaction would be enormous and devastating.”

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