Mr. Conor Ó Raghallaigh:

I thank the Deputy for those questions. It is not lost on any of us that the deployment of resources to achieve what needs to be to achieved will be significant. I am referring not only to financial resources but also to human resources, within Departments and the bodies under the aegis of each Department.

To date, several initiatives have been taken. Climate action units have been set up in almost all Departments. They will add capacity to them to focus in on the most immediate demands that the climate action plan places on them. Broader than that, there is a recognised need for the system to reorient itself towards climate action. This will have implications for all Departments and sectors, and nearly all civil and public servants, in one way or another. We need to factor the climate challenge into operations and policy actions. One way of doing so is to increase capacity and climate literacy throughout the system. We have measures in the climate action plan to that end.

I Roinn an Taoisigh, we have been considering how climate considerations are hardwired into policy formulation. In the first instance, we will be demanding to know the climate implications of Government memorandums as they are submitted. That is a good way of ensuring they will have been considered. In the longer term, however, we have to get much farther back in the chain of policy formulation and ensure climate considerations are hardwired at the very start.