Greenhouse gas emissions increased by 5.4% in 2016.

Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan said the results from Irish participants in the Emissions Trading System (ETS) are "extremely worrying".

She called on the Irish Government and the European Union (EU) to do a lot more to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions limits are not being abused.

She said: "The ETS is the EU's controversial 'cap and trade' market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

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"It happens whereby a cap is set on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by installations covered by the system and the cap is then reduced over time with the hope that total emissions will fall.

"However, the reality is proving far from the rhetoric, especially in relation to Ireland where greenhouse gas emissions from the ETS sector have been on the increase every year since 2013 and those recorded in 2016 were the highest in eight years.

"In the main, the emissions came from high carbon emitting sectors, emissions from the power generation sector increased by 6.6 per cent, cement industry emissions rose by 6.8 per cent, and aviation emissions grew by 23 per cent.

"The breakdown of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from those involved in ETS leaves no doubt that Ireland has to do a lot more work to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels."

(CD)