Mr. Paddy Mahon:

I thank the Chairman and the Deputy for his questions. As a sector, we have developed our own guidance for local authorities on the whole area of electric vehicle charging points. We have identified through our committee the best possible guidance that we can give to colleagues around the country because there is a need for electric vehicle charging. I am aware that the Dublin local authorities and in particular Fingal are probably more advanced in this space. The concept of getting access to a charging point via public charging ports is definitely one that is being pursued in Fingal and is being considered in other places. I note that Dr. Aoife O'Grady has her hand up and that the Department of Transport is in the process of preparing an overall strategy for this, which will be welcome when it is in place. We have issued guidance to our own colleagues with support from many agencies, including the Department of Transport, for the roll-out of charging points as best placed to provide some degree of local charging points at this time.

I can move on to on the last question and the significant role for local government to provide leadership and, indeed, be the conduit from a national level to local communities and local enterprises. That is stated in our strategy, which I mentioned earlier. We see that as a pivotal role for ourselves in this space. We have received significant resources in some of these places already. For instance, in the area of active travel, in partnership with the Department of Transport and the NTA, every local authority has been given approval to approve additional people to make sure the modal shift is put in place and that the active travel programme for each county council is delivered upon. Those resources are, therefore, either in place or being put in place at the moment. It was agreed to just over a year ago and there are significant developments there.

Indeed, through the retrofitting programme, there is scope for local authorities to put resources in place at a local level to provide them with technical support for the roll-out of the social housing programme. They are very welcome. In our strategy, we have identified other resources that we believe are needed in the area of co-ordination, such as the role of a climate action officer. Some local authorities have them in place in the areas of energy co-ordination, delivering on our energy and emissions targets, green solutions and climate community officers but many do not. There are opportunities there for additional resources to be identified and put in place to co-ordinate the full and effective role of local authorities in dealing with climate action.

We have good engagement, in particular with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, in identifying how those resources can be put in place and we are moving forward as quickly as we can to identify the appropriate funding in order that those resources can be put in place for all the city and county councils across the country.