Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses. I particularly appreciate the supportive comments from ICTU and others on this Bill. I think they get it in the sense that the scale of the challenge in meeting our climate change targets means that we are changing everything. It is system change at scale. We are changing our energy, transport, food and industrial systems for the better of the Irish public, the Irish workforce and the environment. As has been said, we must do this in a systematic, organised way. We had discussions at committee last week with Ms Patricia King from ICTU and I agree with her view that in the absence of this legislation, the WRC would be a useful vehicle to engage as wide a variety of stakeholders as possible. I still believe that this piece of architecture forms part of our partnership approach which is something that we do well in this country. Historically we have done well in working collectively across different sectors of society. This piece of architecture, which is very specific, is needed.

Mr. Carroll from the Department cited a lot of very welcome developments since we discussed this Bill on Second Stage. He referred to funding for various initiatives, although I think most people will agree that the way it has been done in the midlands has not been right. There was no advance planning and the unions and workers there have not been properly engaged. Various stakeholders have not been engaged but having said that, some of the funding commitments are welcome. In terms of the Government's approach, it committed to the completion of the just transition review by the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, by the end of this year. It is unfortunate that representatives of NESC are not here today. They said that they did not think the timing of this meeting was right so we are going to have to come back in the new year to-----