Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I disagree. The Minister is over-complicating something that is really just about ensuring that the lobby for sustainability and against climate change can set about doing things like giving communities access to the grid, empowering communities to produce their own electricity and moving away from the use of fossil fuels. It is about ensuring that the strong voice of that lobby is guaranteed a place on the board. It does not mean the board cannot meet if that person is sick or gone on holiday to the Aran Islands or something like that. If the chairman was ill, would it mean the board could not sit or the deputy chairman could not fill in? The Minister is over-complicating something that is, in effect, something he says he wants to achieve. I am saying if the Minister wants to achieve that, let us reflect it in legislation so that when the Minister is gone, the next Minister, or the one after that, is bound by the same legislation to ensure that voice is reflected on the board. I am very happy to hear the Minister wants to achieve this and that he and his officials are willing to meet with us to discuss that but I do not see the big problem with putting it in legislation. Why over-complicate it? All it states is, "The Minister shall also reserve a place on the Board for a representative of the not for profit environmental NGO sector with a record of campaigning against climate change and for sustainability." Surely that is the way we all want to go. Even the European Union says it wants to go in that direction. That is what the Paris Declaration was all about. This is not very complicated but the Minister is making it sound that way.