Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I should have said in response to the Chair that part of the architecture and infrastructure of governance and accountability is the Climate Change Advisory Council. It has a critical role. It is independent. Its members are appointed initially by the Government but I do not think anyone would doubt its independence. It has a critical role and it will be reporting and reviewing the Government's actions and holding us to account.

I was surprised that Deputy O'Rourke said he has had difficulty getting access to officials. If there is a difficulty there, that is something we should address because this committee has always had a very significant role on the climate side. If there is any hesitancy from any Department to report to or answer questions before this committee, that would be a very serious issue and something that would need to be addressed very quickly.

Regarding the governance structures, we have the likes of the climate action delivery board, which is the central structure within the Department of the Taoiseach and involves the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach and the Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. There is a lot of architecture with each Department having its own delivery board to look at where it has particular responsibility as to how the plan being delivered. Quarterly reports are required in that regard. I will be honest; we are still only picking up pace. The scale of change ahead of us is beyond compare and that will require all of Government and local government. I have been engaged in the last number of months in going around and talking to local authorities because they have a critical role within the law. I will be with Offaly County Council tomorrow. While everyone is on board with the logic of us making this change, it is going to take time for us to ramp up across the system, in all our systems, with regard to the actual reality of that change.

I have to be upfront and honest and look at our public, political and media debate in some areas. There are contentious areas like transport and agriculture, as well as housing and energy. A lot of the time it is presented as "Shock horror: Change is coming in this area". There is change coming. Having said that, a highly significant survey was done by the EPA involving up to 3,000 or 4,000 people being interviewed in a detailed very scientific basis. It showed that the vast majority of Irish people - over 80% - including rural and urban, young and old, want to take action to address climate change. The political hesitancy or controversy around this will change, as will the system slowness, which is in every part of our system, in local government and central government. That will have to change and will change because ultimately it is a move towards a better way of doing things. It is not punitive. It is where the world is going, where technology is going and where the new economy is going. We can overcome that inertia and we will. We will have to.