Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The carbon tax is being used for retrofitting for the warmer homes scheme and for social welfare payments such as the fuel allowance. It also pays for half the agri-environment scheme. I accept that we must deliver on the plan and ensure that people have warmer, cosier homes. Then the message would be a lot easier to sell.

I want to add to what has been said by referring to my experience of dealing with community groups that are trying to make a change in terms of climate change and especially biodiversity. What we find is that many of the groups involved in the PPN have a focus on biodiversity, whether it is a pollinator group or a tree-planting group, among others. I will refer to the experience some of the groups I have been dealing with and the challenges they faced, as it shows where we must improve. I fully accept the point about the importance of participation and consultation. I want to focus on the challenges and obstacles community groups face in accessing finance and supports to deliver their projects. The witnesses might respond on what they think needs to be done to improve the situation.

Clonakilty recently won the award for the tidiest small town in Ireland in the Tidy Towns awards. It was indicated to the Tidy Towns group afterwards by the adjudicators that one of the reasons Clonakilty had won the top prize in that category was the new biodiversity projects in the town. The Tidy Towns group created a fantastic biodiversity wildlife garden to the west of the town. It is amazing. It was not one of the box-ticking types of effort with a couple of wildflowers in a meadow. It was genuinely purposeful and created a great new ecosystem. The group got behind it 100%, but it got minimal support from the local authority and Departments to deliver the garden. It was achieved through fundraising and constantly going back to the community in that regard.

The Irish for Clonakilty is Cloich na Coillte, the castle in the forest. The motto of the tree-planting group that was set up was that we want to put the "coillte" back in Cloich na Coillte, which was once in a woodland area but the woodlands have been decimated. The group approached the local authority to look for areas of public space where trees could be planted. The engagement was very poor. The group ended up having to go to private landowners who were willing to plant a few trees. Thousands of trees were planted but very few on public spaces or public land. The group met challenges to delivering the project.

One of the most incredibly frustrating experiences I had was when a local group that was set up to deliver on biodiversity wanted to plant trees around the perimeter of the local graveyard to try to make it a more wildlife- and biodiversity-friendly space and also to make it a nicer place for loved ones to visit graves. Graveyards are maintained by local authorities and the response to the group was negative even though the members were going to do it on a voluntary basis and fund it themselves. They were told that it would create too many maintenance issues for the council down the line. There is a real issue with the attitude of local authorities in particular and many groups as well. I would like to get the views of the witnesses on how we can change the engagement with local authorities. They have climate action plans and mitigation plans, but much of it seems to be about ticking the boxes. How can we increase the engagement?

I am not sure if anyone else has noticed, but there has been an explosion in community groups who want to improve biodiversity in their towns and areas, but the funding they are getting is a pittance. What do we need to do? Is there a figure on the type of funding that is needed to help these groups and, apart from the funding, what type of structures do we need to put in place? I would like to hear the views of the witnesses on this point.

There seems to be another issue arising with local authorities whereby they give community groups a bit of funding and then they wash their hands of the issue and leave people to look after it. I mentioned that the local authority would not provide public space or land in Clonakilty, and it does not provide follow-up support either. Is there too much focus on giving people a few quid, letting them deal with it and then the local authority steps back? I would not mind getting the opinion of the witnesses on that point either.

Could the witnesses also briefly comment on communities getting involved in their own renewable energy projects? Have they seen good work there and where can we improve? I would welcome comments from the witnesses on the points I have made about the challenges communities face in delivering projects.