Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in today. I hope he has a successful COP. We need this COP to change the narrative and move from climate talk to climate action. Equally important, it needs to be a just climate action and that is primarily what I will talk about. The Irish Timespublished a poll recently on Government actions and what was described as a scepticism among the public on climate initiatives. For me, that poll showed that people are not seeing a just transition when it comes to climate action. They are seeing the policy stick being applied with carbon taxes and higher prices but they are not seeing the carrot being used. They are not seeing support coming from the Government to help them make the changes that are required.

I know initiatives are in place but they are not being felt on the ground.

I am concerned about just transition. I received a response from the Minister, which stated that the climate action plan would set out the specific commitments of just transition rather than applying just transition through a statutory stand-alone commission. This would appear to go against the programme for Government commitment, which said the Government would establish a just transition commissioner as a statutory office with appropriate staffing and resources. Could the Minister comment on that? When he introduced his just transition Bill, which established a just transition commission as a statutory office, he said it was a critical piece of the architecture for the climate action plan. If he will not have a stand-alone office, how can the climate action plan work if this critical piece of infrastructure architecture regarding a stand-alone commission is not in place via legislation? I would like the Minister's input on that.