Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their engagement thus far. My questions would come under some main headings relating to the witnesses' contributions, namely: Mr. Ó Raghallaigh's consideration of the resources to deliver, which I will touch upon shortly; Mr. Mahon's contribution on the local authority's role in all of that; and Mr. Carroll's points about retrofitting.

My first question is for Mr. Ó Raghallaigh. On the overall targets that need to be achieved across Departments, what kinds of physical and human resources would be required? What changes are being made currently across Departments to ensure that those are targets are met?

In the context of the 31 local authorities, Mr. Mahon spoke of fostering and achieving those targets and engaging with various stakeholders. Colleagues on the committee have mentioned the public participation networks and other local organisations with which to engage. I did not hear much about youth in this context. Young people have really driven this agenda. One of the reasons we are all talking about climate targets in different sectors is, arguably, because young people have for many years been ahead of the curve on this and have demanded change. This is commendable, but the local authorities are at the coalface of responding to this challenge and I am not hearing a lot about that engagement. Yes, there are those plans that must be reviewed every five years, but I wonder how the local authorities will engage with young people and those organisations such as Comhairle na nÓg, and others we have spoken about before.

From what I heard, there has been very little reference to the engagement with, and the onus on, the regional authorities. There are some challenges, which we have spoken about before, such as car sharing, bike sharing, scooter schemes and other types of schemes where local authorities will need to act together. The regional authorities play a pivotal role in that regard. Perhaps Mr. Mahon will comment on this matter.

On retrofitting, Mr. Carroll mentioned a target of 36,000 by 2030. With regard to his plans for local authority housing, he mentioned a 40% target in connection with local authority dwellings not performing to the level required for a B2 rating. Has the review started? How advanced is it in determining how many dwellings do not hit the target or will require retrofitting? If it has not started, when will it be completed?

Mr. Mahon mentioned in his opening statement the retrofitting of the national public lighting stock and the local authority fleet. What are the percentages for each? What is the percentage for the success regarding national public lighting? How many vehicles do the local authorities have that are of renewable stock?