Minister Carroll MacNeill launches public consultation on Health Sector Adaptation Plan for Climate Change
-
From: Department of Health
- Published on: 26 August 2025
- Last updated on: 26 August 2025
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, TD, has today launched a public consultation on the draft 2025 Health Sectoral Adaptation Plan. This consultation will help shape how Ireland’s health sector responds to the growing impacts of climate change.
It aims to gather views on the proposed approach, the risks identified, and the level of ambition in the plan, ensuring that climate adaptation measures are aligned with public health priorities and that the sector is equipped to build resilience against future climate-related challenges.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
“Tackling the climate crisis - both its historic causes and future impacts - is one of the greatest challenges facing Ireland and the world.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis, and we are already seeing the effects: more extreme weather, heatwaves, wildfires, and the spread of zoonotic diseases - all of which strain our health services.
“The 2025 Health Sectoral Adaptation Plan will embed climate considerations across health policies and ensure health is central to wider climate action. This kind of cross-sectoral collaboration is essential to building resilience.
“I encourage everyone to take part in the consultation and help shape our collective response.”
The draft 2025 Sectoral Adaptation Plan sets out a broad range of risks faced by the health sector and contains recommendations and actions to address these. It is informed by the National Climate Change Risk Assessment, which was published in June 2025, and will align with the range of Sectoral Adaptation Plans currently under development.
This consultation seeks feedback on the approach taken in the development of the Plan, the range of risks identified, and the overall ambition for health sector climate action.
The consultation will be open for four weeks – the closing date is Tuesday 23 September 2025.
NOTES TO EDITOR
On 5 June 2024, Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications published Ireland’s second statutory National Adaptation Framework (NAF), replacing the original 2018 framework. This update, required under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act (Amendment) 2021, sets out the national strategy for reducing climate vulnerability and capitalising on potential opportunities.
The NAF identified fourteen key sectors, including the Health Sector, which are required to prepare sectoral adaptation plans. All Sectoral Adaptation Plans should be informed by the National Climate Change Risk Assessment and accompanying technical guidance to prioritise key risks and adaptation responses.
The first Health Sectoral Adaptation Plan was published in 2019, which focused on the identification of the ways in which climate change would impact on the health system and the health of the State’s population.
The Department of Health is undertaking a public consultation on its successor, which builds on the learnings from the 2019 plan and seeks to mainstream climate considerations across the health sector. It also introduces a framework for collaboration across sectors to ensure that all climate adaptation measures are aligned with health priorities. It is a strategic document which and charts a pathway towards health sector climate resilience.
The public consultation can be accessed here.
The Draft Plan is available here.
Access the Department’s Privacy Policy
Queries in relation to the consultation can be submitted by email to healthyireland@health.gov.ie