The passing of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill was described as "historic" by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly in the Dáil.

The Bill provides a statutory basis for the national objective of transition to a low-carbon economy by 2050.

Mr Kelly said the Government could build on the preparatory work under way and engage fully with the all-important implementation phase.

“This includes, not least, the development of the State’s first national mitigation plan, which will chart a course towards meeting our immediate greenhouse gas emission mitigation targets up to 2020, as well as looking towards 2020 and 2050,” he added.

He said implementation of the legislation would also involve development of the first statutory national adaptation framework and the preparation for the inevitable impacts of climate change over the coming years and decades.

Independent TD Clare Daly said she had seen many things in the Dáil but the debate beat all. Although they were dealing with probably the biggest challenge facing humanity, there was just herself and the Minister to discuss amendments to the Bill from the Seanad, she added. She said those amendments were virtually meaningless in terms of the Bill's content: "Their only purpose is to give the Seanad a role in some of the toothless measures proposed in the original Bill."

"Given the focus of the world is on what is happening in Paris at the moment, Ireland stands out as some sort of throwback."

Ms Daly claimed the Government’s real attitude to climate change had been exposed as cynical and unsustainable.

She said it was a real indictment of the Government’s handling of the issue that it appointed Prof John FitzGerald to the expert advisory council on the climate. Prof FitzGerald was an able person, but he was an economist, she added.