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

That is the biggest challenge. There is no shortage of technology and the economic case is strong. The fear of change and the protection of existing interests are the biggest challenges, as are getting public support and buy-in. I believe the public are there with us but they are uncertain as to what it means and what it means for them. The first thing we should not do is put it all on them. The environmental movement in general made a mistake going back 30 years by putting it down to individual responsibility and asking if people were doing the right thing such as purchasing the right shampoo or whatever. It is impossible to do it all by yourself and we should also address the source of the problem. In this country we have done a good job in ending exploration licences for oil and gas and so on. You start at the source rather than at the consumer end but it is still a real challenge and problem.

One of the things that has worked, which is ongoing and we will learn and keep doing it, started with the citizen's assembly and listening to local people. The national dialogue on climate change and the conversations we are having on climate change are working because they are open and transparent. Just as we are providing information here, at those sessions we are presenting to, for example, the task forces on offshore energy, heating buildings or sustainable mobility. We engage regularly with a range of different stakeholders to outline what we are doing and the latest update and information. In a way, it is part of the governance structures. We work well in this country in partnership with the likes of trade unions, farming organisations and others. They are actively engaged in that and that is important.

One of those task forces deals with communications, so we discuss it there. Some of the research and behavioural analysis Pete Lunn and the ESRI are doing is good and our Department is backing that up by doing a lot of work and research in this area. Of the six task forces we have created, the first that was set up was the offshore wind task force because there was such an immediate urgency to it. The second was on sustainable mobility and the third was on heat. The just transition task force is in the second phase and it will take on the role of delivering on that and then there is the task force on the land use review. We have also established the climate communications task force and we are working with the Department of the Taoiseach as well as within our Department because it has a unit and a particular responsibility on this. It is the most difficult and challenging one but there is a lot of work going on in that area.