While many countries are pushing in the opposite direction, the State sees the climate crisis as a “priority”, said Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the launch of the revised National Development Plan (NDP) on Tuesday.
The NDP is designed to safeguard the State’s future and “meet our climate goals”, he said, as he defended spending on new roads.
While much of the €275 billion in capital investment up to 2035 addresses infrastructure deficits and housing shortfalls, including capacity to deliver water and electricity connections, much spending is geared towards the scale-up of renewable energy, ensuring more robust grids and resilience from the effects of the climate crisis.
The Government has identified the need to provide support for development of “low-carbon transport projects”, such as MetroLink, before 2030.
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The NDP says the Government has decided, given its “unique scale”, to fund the Metrolink out of the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF), whose purpose is to finance investment associated with delivering on the Republic’s climate and nature goals. This funding approach will “allow the ambitious pipeline of other public transport projects”, it adds.
This will allow for scale-up of low-carbon transport, but also key road developments separately under the Department of Transport. The NDP, in effect, confirms the previous government’s commitment to 2:1 funding in favour of public transport and active travel over roads no longer applies.
The ICNF will allocate €2 billion to MetroLink. The fund is projected to grow to €14 billion overall up to 2030.
Mr Martin defended spending on new roads and suggested they could be climate-friendly, as evidenced by improvements in air quality in Macroom, Co Cork, after the town was bypassed.
A total of €3.5 billion is earmarked for spending by ESB Networks and EirGrid over the 2026-2030 period. “This equity will enable both companies to increase capital investment to expand electricity transmission and distribution network infrastructure,” says the NDP.
Minister for Energy Darragh O’Brien said this “transformative investment will strengthen Ireland’s energy security, support economic growth and accelerate our transition to renewable energy”.
The Taoiseach said funding for MetroLink, the Greater Dublin Drainage Project (a new regional wastewater treatment facility at Clonshaugh), and a project supplying water to Dublin and parts of the east coast from the river Shannon are “baked in”, though not costed in the document.
The Shannon project is to address shortages and supply vulnerabilities in the Greater Dublin Area, which are likely to become more acute with climate change and population growth.
Separate to €2 billion for Uisce Éireann to provide water infrastructure for 300,000 new homes, €2.5 billion is allocated for “key large-scale water infrastructure projects to build essential capacity for growth and increase the resilience and sustainability of water supply”.
Coinciding with a new infrastructure division in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the NDP confirms projects proposed for funding, on top of economic appraisal, will have to assess impact on greenhouse gas emissions and evaluate likely “climate-related outcomes”.
The ESB said the €1.5 billion equity investment would support plans to deliver up to €13.4 billion of capital expenditure during its PR6 capital expenditure programme covering the period 2026–2030.
“Similar to trends in other international electricity network companies, it is proposed that PR6 will be over twice the size of the previous capital programme, whereby ESB will have invested over €5 billion in networks infrastructure between 2021 and 2025,” it said.
Its business plan for PR6 aims to enhance the electricity network to support economic growth, increased housing, improve resilience and reliability of electricity supplies and enable delivery of a decarbonised energy system on Ireland’s path to net zero. “This is aligned with the Government’s National Planning Framework, Housing for All, the NDP and Climate Action Plan,” it added.
Wind Energy Ireland chief executive Noel Cunniffe welcomed grid elements of the new NDP.
“Last year was the worst ever for wasted wind power, estimated to cost consumers €450 million ... Despite the best efforts of EirGrid and ESB Networks our electricity grid is simply not able to cope with what our members produce today, let alone meet future demands from offshore wind, solar generation and the electrification of our economy,” he added.
The investment would “help transform our electricity system and accelerate the delivery of clean, affordable and secure power to Irish families and businesses”.
