Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Donnelly for her opening statement.

She spoke about just transition and the essential role of public policy to ensure a just transition. She also spoke about the change that will come in people's lives and the social acceptance and engagement that is going to be needed. As a policy, it sounds very good but I fear that in practice, the vulnerable and those on the margins will be treated in the face of climate change in the same way they are already treated in respect of housing, caring and disability. There will continue to be a lack of special education places for children and so forth. What is so special about the climate change issue that the approach by the State in its policy should be so faithfully carried through in practice when it is clearly not in any other area? Does Ms Donnelly see the Climate Change Advisory Council having any role or oversight in this regard?

Ms Donnelly also mentioned our greater reliance on electricity. The council referred to transport, heating, population growth and data centres. Data centres appear to be accepted as a given, as if they are a fact of life, but the more of them we have, the more energy of any kind we will need to run them. Is there a desire on the part of the Climate Change Advisory Council to make recommendations on that issue? A few months ago, we were talking about the fear of blackouts and with the amount of data centres we have, does the Climate Change Advisory Council have a role or advice to give in that regard?