Mr. Paddy Mahon:

I might ask my colleague, Mr. Mellett, of the Atlantic seaboard north CARO to discuss staffing. He did a great deal of work on preparing business cases.

Before I turn to him, each local authority has gone through, or is going through, a county development plan process.

A number of plans have been reviewed and adopted, overseen by the Planning Regulator. It is an ongoing process, but climate action is an overarching theme. It was a significant part in our case in Longford, particularly with the just transition owing to the closure of power stations in the midlands.

The county development plan process is guided by the national planning framework and the regional spatial and economic strategy, RESS. There is a co-ordinated approach to development plans, with climate action a significant theme therein. It permeates through the various sections of our county development plan and every other plan. The reviews of these plans will have a significant input from the response to climate action. There is considerably more detail involved than I have laid out, but climate action is an important theme now compared with previous county development plans and the process has significant regard to it.

Regarding the bottom-up element, our sector engaged in the national dialogue on climate action last year and this year. These were conversations on climate action that were co-ordinated by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with cross-Government support. We were happy to be involved as a sector. Through our involvement, the PPNs and Comhairle na nÓg were involved in those conversations last year, which helped to inform the climate action Bill and the subsequent Climate Action Plan. This year’s conversations on climate action are being organised at the moment. Last year, a sample of PPNs were included in the conversations. All of our PPNs will be included this year. This is a positive message, not only to communities, but to the local government sector, given that we were happy to facilitate that process last year. The process works well. It gives communities the opportunity to play a meaningful and significant part in how climate action is addressed. The message that we keep sending at local, regional and national levels is that we are well placed to impact locally on national and global issues in terms of climate action. The PPNs and SECs have a positive impact at a local level.

I understand that the Department is due to roll out a community climate action fund. Through our involvement with the Department over the past year, that fund is being rolled out via local authorities in partnership with communities and PPNs. This is another positive contribution that we can make.