Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would caution against having a stand-alone Minister with responsibility for nothing other than climate action. The process must be Government-led. The key to success is the amount of effort made put into the challenge by other Departments rather than the one with "Climate Action" in its title. That requires the authority coming from Cabinet and the Taoiseach, not from one individual member of the Government. In the past, we have occasionally salved our consciences by putting some words into a Minister's title and stating that the job was done because we had a Minister for "X". The quality of what we do will be judged by the quality of the actions that we bring forward and our ability to implement them on time. I do not believe that packaging it off into one corner will work, although I acknowledge that others take a different view.

I have no reason to criticise RTÉ or Met Éireann. The latter is involved in a very ambitious project relating to prediction, flooding and so on, which is designed to improve our capability in the context of adaptation and anticipation. I am sure both organisations are doing excellent work. At a broader level, every State agency should have a carbon mandate and a responsibility in procurement, at its lowest level. State agencies should also be working on those areas in respect of which they can play a role in influencing policy.

Bord na Móna was mentioned. It could have such a profound influence on what is happening across entire communities, as well as fulfilling its core role of operating as a commercial enterprise. We need to examine how we can recast some of the mandates of our State agencies and integrate the expectation that their client bases will undertake change in the context of their work. That may only involve a soft nudge or it may involve a harder one, but we need to get every agency thinking about it. There will soon be results for public buildings and how well certain Departments have been doing. I have had sight of some of the relevant information prior to publication and, although it is not complete, the range of performers, from low to high, is evident. Low performers should have a mandate that they are expected to report annually as to why they continue to perform below par and whether there is a justifiable reason for that. We need to think about lifting the mandate of organisations. We will need to enlist the help of all groups - including trade unions and community groups - that can influence people's behaviour in the context of climate change.

I do not know about block purchases. That is probably a matter for its own membership as to whether it is an advantage. However, the GAA, for example, looked seriously at energy retrofitting. I do not know whether that developed, but I know the organisation was certainly looking into it a couple of years ago, and is a project that might be revived.