It was claimed that a meeting of the three coalition leaders resulted in the two senior parties not allowing the Greens to bring a memo on how to allocate a €3bn climate fund.
“Environment Minister Eamon Ryan wanted to deliver an outline plan to ministers,” a Green Party source said. “It’s hard to know why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael blocked this. This was based on the work of a cross-departmental taskforce on climate action.
“We’ve flagged on several occasions where this money needs to be spent. This will help businesses, public bodies and farmers save money while cutting their emissions, so we’re a bit baffled why it wouldn’t get the green light.”
It is believed Green spending would have antagonised Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters. Last night, the senior coalition parties claimed the memo was “not ready”.
The money was to be used to help farmers, industry and the public sector develop new income streams and to reduce their energy bills “in ways that would also help Ireland meet its climate targets”, the Greens said.
Pilot schemes have succeeded in using the by-product heat from data centres to heat homes
Hundreds of millions of euro were earmarked to be spent on retrofitting public sector buildings such as hospitals, schools and universities so that they use less fuel for heating, while at the same time reducing emissions.
A similar approach was to be taken in helping private companies become more energy efficient, allowing them to make “substantial savings”.
The plan also included proposals to support the development of district heating in Ireland, where waste heat from large industries could be used to heat homes and public buildings through a network of underground pipes.
Pilot schemes have succeeded in using the by-product heat from data centres to heat homes.
Financial support would also have been allocated to developing biomethane projects in rural Ireland, a process in which farm and food waste is used to produce gas that can be fed into the grid.
Further funding would also have been used to roll out infrastructure to support offshore wind energy and microgeneration.
A government spokesperson insisted the memo was not ready. Sources suggested the Greens were “having their cake and eating it” by talking up a row and then outlining the benefits of what could not yet be delivered.
