Electric vehicles accounted for 24% of all new cars sold between January and March – surpassing diesel sales for the first time.The statistics are contained in the Government’s new quarterly report into the implementation of its Climate Action Plan, which will be considered by Cabinet today.The report shows the Government has implemented 75% of the actions it said it would complete over the first three months of the year.

27 of the 36 actions scheduled for delivery were completed on time this quarter.

Three departments met all of the actions under their remit for the quarter – the Departments of Finance; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and Foreign Affairs.

However, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications only had a delivery rate of 71% – although it had the greatest number of actions to take.

The Department of Agriculture, which had the second highest number of actions, had a delivery rate of 91%.

On electricity, just under 35% was produced from renewable sources in 2022 and Ireland met half of its 2030 onshore wind target.

What are described as “key actions” include the launch of the €1.5 billion Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to help improve biodiversity, climate, air and water quality.

It said in the first three months alone, there were over 46,000 applications, accounting for a third of the 135,000 farms in the country.