This government\u2019s approach to climate has gone to the dogs, according to Social Democrats environment spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore TD.<\/p>\n
Deputy Whitmore said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2023 and 2024, the last coalition published those year\u2019s respective Climate Action Plans the December before – it\u2019s now February and there\u2019s no sign of this year\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year\u2019s plan, the first of this government\u2019s term, was left unpublished until April – the previous government excelled at climate rhetoric but failed at climate action, but this government doesn\u2019t even bother with the rhetoric, leaving one of the most critical emergencies of this generation off the agenda completely.<\/p>\n
\u201cReports this week that 300 flood-prone sites were proposed for rezoning by councillors while the government put climate action on the backburner is an accurate representation of the dire state of affairs we find ourselves in; we\u2019ve just come out of a period that saw towns in the east and south-east of the country absolutely devastated by flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that climate change will only make events like these more frequent and more damaging, yet we\u2019re forced to address the farce of building on flood plains while the Climate Action Plan is nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must stop making nonsensical planning decisions for houses and developments in flood plain areas, it\u2019s the State that pays the costs of the devastation caused by floods to these properties – the Minister must call in the Councils in question to speak about zoning flood plain areas for housing and make it clear that this must not continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s even more important that we focus on the bigger picture – the Minister must publish this year\u2019s Climate Action Plan immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear that this government does not take climate seriously through its lack of investment, innovation and interest – it\u2019s communities which continue to pay for its inaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 17th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This government\u2019s approach to climate has gone to the dogs, according to Social Democrats environment spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore TD. Deputy Whitmore said: \u201cIn 2023 and 2024, the last coalition published those year\u2019s respective Climate Action Plans the December before – it\u2019s now February and there\u2019s no sign of this year\u2019s plan. \u201cLast year\u2019s plan, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[405,727,570,268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-environment","category-flooding","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n