Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for attending the meeting. My first question is for Mr. Ó Raghallaigh and it relates to the annual review of the climate action committee. That review mentions that the national climate action delivery board, the role of which is to hold Departments and public bodies accountable for the delivery of their actions, did not meet at all in 2020, despite a commitment to meet quarterly. Is that board still in existence? Did it meet in 2021? Is it the intention that the board will continue to meet to hold entities to account for the climate action commitments made under the 2021 plan?

I will address my next question, which is about local government, to Mr. Dunne. I was a councillor in Wicklow County Council for a number of years. One of the issues councils encounter is a lack of funding when it comes to meeting the national commitments that have been set for them. That is the case, for example, for electric vehicle, EV, infrastructure. Councils only receive 75% of the funding necessary to install EV charging points. The implementation and delivery of those by local government has been very poor in recent years. Funding could have played a part in that. Are local authorities receiving sufficient funding to enable them to meet their many commitments, including new commitments that are being set down for them under the current plans?

My final set of questions, which relate to housing, is for Mr. Lemass. Today's residential building report specified that more than 90,000 houses are vacant at the moment. It is clear the most sustainable building is an existing building. Refurbishment involves the equivalent of 15 tonnes of carbon compared with 50 tonnes of carbon for a new building. Does the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have a target number of vacant premises it would like to see refurbished? What are the mechanisms to do that?

There was a target to retrofit 2,400 social homes that were due for upgrade in 2021. When I asked the question in November, only 199 properties had been retrofitted. Does the Department have an update on that figure for 2021? What were the barriers to getting those properties retrofitted and how will they be resolved, going forward?