Mr. Conor Ó Raghallaigh:

In September, I was appointed as head of the climate action unit at the Department of the Taoiseach. Immediately prior to that, I had been serving as deputy Secretary General to President Higgins. In my previous career, I had some relevant experience relating to my current job. I spent six years as a director of the National Parks and Wildlife Service dealing with biodiversity protection and the implementation of relevant EU law in Ireland. I was also directly involved with climate policy for a number of years in the Department of the Environment representing Ireland at EU meetings and also representing the EU in negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The climate action unit at the Department of the Taoiseach was established in 2019 in recognition of the need to ensure a whole-of-government response to the climate crisis and specifically to strengthen governance and oversight of the implementation of climate policy. The unit concerns itself with the broad scope of issues relevant to the climate challenge as well as with wider environmental issues, including biodiversity, water and air quality.

Our purpose is to support the Taoiseach and the Government in their leadership of Ireland's transition to a climate-resilient, biodiversity-rich, environmentally-sustainable and climate-neutral economy, as mandated in the passing of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act last summer. The legislation is just one part of the Government's comprehensive approach to climate action. A wide range of practical commitments are included in the programme for Government and now also contained in the Climate Action Plan 2021. Following publication of the climate action plan in December, the Government published an annexe of actions to the climate action plan that contains details of more than 1,000 individual measures that have been agreed to complete the actions committed to in the plan.

The climate action unit plays a role in co-ordinating climate action across the Government, which is essential in such a complex policy space, and also in making sure that each Department and sector can play its full part in moving us quickly and coherently towards the changes that are required. The work of the unit is, as members would expect, cross-cutting, supporting climate action through the provision of systemic supports and seeking to identify and remove barriers to our transition to the climate-neutral future envisaged by the Government. Our principal purpose is to support the Cabinet committee on the environment and climate change in its work as well as that of the associated senior officials group.

The unit also supports the work of the climate action delivery board, which has been tasked with holding each Department and public body accountable for the delivery of actions set out in the climate action plan. The delivery board is chaired by the Secretary General to the Government and the Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

A key aspect of monitoring the implementation by Departments of agreed climate action measures, which are set out in the climate action plan and its annexe, is the preparation of quarterly progress reports. This work is also undertaken by the climate action unit that I lead. Under the climate action plan, and its annexe, Departments have been assigned lead responsibility in respect of each measure and a timeline for completion is provided. Departments that have responsibility for actions report progress to our Department in each quarter.