Climate Change Policy

7. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the assessment his Department has made of the impact of the exceptionally hot and dry conditions experienced in Ireland during summer 2026 (details supplied); the additional measures he intends to introduce to protect and support communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65985/26]

I thank the Deputy very much. The Government is committed to protecting Ireland’s present and future generations with a whole-of-Government approach to climate adaptation underpinned by the 2024 national adaptation framework, NAF. This framework, as the Deputy knows, is co-ordinated by our Department via the national adaptation steering committee, NASC. In 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, published Ireland’s first national climate change risk assessment, NCCRA. It identifies national climate change risks and ranks areas where action is needed to be prioritised to make Ireland more resilient to the impacts of climate change. We know from the NCCRA, and from the standardised climate data from Met Éireann, that more frequent and intense storms, longer periods of drought, rising sea levels, heatwaves, floods and coastal change are just some of the impacts of our changing climate to which we must adapt. It is that data and knowledge which has underpinned the development of ten sectoral adaptation plans, SAPs, covering 13 key sectors such as agriculture, water management, flood risk management and health. Those plans were approved and published by Government in November 2025. In developing the plans, sectors were required to collaborate on cross-cutting issues and with climate action regional offices, CAROs, to ensure a cohesive approach at both the national and local levels. In 2024, 31 local authority climate action plans, LACAPs, were published, which included adaptation actions to build resilience against flood, heat, and drought in our communities. Since 2022, approximately €19 million has been paid to local authorities by our Department to develop the implementation of their local plans. A new adaptation taskforce, which the Minister established at the end of last year, provides for senior-level oversight and co-ordination of Ireland’s approach to adaptation, including systemic delivery barriers and cross-cutting issues and risks. In terms of water restrictions, which I know is one of the most important issues and the one that was very much in play during the most recent period of warm weather, reduced rainfall and impacts on ecosystems and river levels, these are matters for Uisce Éireann in the first instance and not ones for which the Minister has any function.

We had a great summer here. We all enjoyed the bit of heat, but it is the second year in a row where we have experienced our hottest summer on record. Temperatures that used to be anomalies in the past are now becoming consistent. It is that direction of travel that we are really concerned about, because we all know it has such huge impacts on our society. This is the case in urban areas when it comes to a lack of green spaces. Even new apartment designs that are single aspect do not allow for draughts to come through apartments. We have huge societal issues that we have to grasp here. This is aside from the impact it is going to have on our agricultural sector, our growers and all of that as well. There will also be an impact on our biodiversity from the wildfires we saw across huge swathes of our mountains and forests during the summer. In my area in Dublin South-West, this included the beautiful Featherbeds, where we had disastrous wildfires. We need a co-ordinated approach. The Minister of State spoke about local authorities, but what is the co-ordinated approach?

The Deputy has got it, as we have. The challenge is real. We have moved to a point where the doubters in relation to climate change are starting to understand that it is real and that it is here. We have to put in place a systemic approach to addressing it in respect of the adaptation and mitigation measures we put in place. As I said, it is co-ordinated centrally. The involvement of the local authorities is the appropriate way. We have the sectoral plans in the first instance across the various areas. The Deputy identified agriculture and the impact climate change is having on that sector. We saw the intensity of that in the south east. There are, of course, issues that will have to be addressed there in relation to winter fodder, etc. It also, however, has implications for cities and towns. The Deputy identified those areas. This is why the local authorities will play a key role and it is why they are being funded by central government to develop their plans. As the Deputy also identified, this will also require a whole-of-Government approach, and that is the strategy we are deploying here.

With El Niño happening next year, this sitation is presumably going to get worse. We are likely to have another record heatwave next summer. Aside from the issues we spoke about earlier, there are also serious health implications here as well for vulnerable communities and older people. The 2023 climate action plan said it was necessary to develop a new public health heatwave plan and to seek to ensure more uniform planning country-wide for heatwaves. That recommendation was not included in the 2024 or 2025 versions of the climate action plan. I wonder if it will be included this time around. Other things we need to look at are temperature regulations for workers, maximum working temperatures and a legal maximum it is safe for people to work at. Multi-departmental work needs to happen. We want to make sure it is being done.

The health issues are an important area, in particular for people with compromised immune systems or categorised illnesses and the elderly who find themselves depending on their accommodation. That is why, as I identified, there are 13 sectoral plans, one of which is health. That is clearly for the Department of Health and the HSE to work on, developing plans and procedures to mitigate, insofar as possible, the greatest impacts of significant increases in heat. It also has an impact on the supply of food and food security, which is an important component. That is why the agricultural piece is in there. Local authorities and entities like Uisce Éireann need to be able to ensure that there is a ready supply of water, that we do not have to reduce usage and that we will not be left in a position that there is not a ready supply of clean water. All of the elements the Deputy identified are appropriate and right. A plan is in place. The sectoral approach is the way to do it. We believe the funding to local authorities from central government addresses the concerns the Deputy raised.