Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The amendment is a revision of the way in which the members of the Climate Change Advisory Council would be selected. It proposes that the members of the CCAC be appointed by the President and that there be a process involving the Public Appointments Service and so on. My objection to this is that it would take too long. We have a Climate Change Advisory Council, we decided at the pre-legislative stage to revise the way in which that advisory council is composed and what its membership should be and we need to get that in place in order that we will be able to do our carbon budget this year. We do not have enough time to go through a very lengthy process to do that. What is proposed is not simply that the Minister just appoints the people to the advisory council; the legislation includes all the kinds of criteria that have to be matched in order to be on the advisory council, lists who the ex officiomembers shall be and details the gender balance. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications of the day, whoever he or she might be, will not just write down a list of names he or she thinks should be on the advisory council; the list has to match the legislation. The Minister does not have the Executive power to appoint the members directly. He or she has to bring that list to the Government and have it approved by the Cabinet, which is unusual because, typically, when a Minister appoints people to a board, it is by direct executive order. We have a level of checks and legislative limits as to how the council is appointed. We have had a discussion about who should be on it and how to reconstitute it. The Climate Change Advisory Council will be significantly different from its predecessor. I think that going down the route of the Public Appointments Service would just take us too long. One thing on which we can all agree is that there is a great urgency here. I think the balance in the legislation is right and that is why I am not accepting the amendment.