Mr. Mark Griffin:

On the first question, it would be helpful to set out the structures that are in place to manage this across Government in order to give a clear sense of the level of join-up in place across Departments at official level and at Government level in dealing with this issue. In 2016, when the Government was formed, it took the view that we should have a climate action and energy Department, which is why my Department inherited the climate functions from the Custom House in 2016, and we have managed both policy agendas since then. There is Oireachtas oversight through the annual transition statement process, and since last year each sectoral Minister for each sector is required to brief the Oireachtas on progress in his or her own area.

On the delivery of the national mitigation plan and the national adaptation framework, there is a high-level steering group chaired by the Minister which has the senior officials from the relevant Departments feeding into it. There is Cabinet-level oversight by a Cabinet committee, which has been quite active this year in looking at the climate issue. As one would expect, there is Cabinet consideration of this matter from time to time, and we have been to Cabinet on a number of climate and energy-related issues during 2018. The Cabinet committee is fed by a senior officials' group, and the representation is generally at Assistant Secretary level. Therefore, Mr. Michael Manley is a regular attendee at that, along with Mr. Brian Carroll, the Assistant Secretary in the climate area.

A new innovation, for want of a better term, is the Project Ireland 2040 delivery group, which is a group comprising the relevant Secretaries General who have responsibility for areas mandated in the national development plan. I sit on it, and it is chaired by Mr. Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and co-chaired by Mr. John McCarthy, Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. It includes the Secretaries General of the Department of Health, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and the Department of Education and Skills. There is a good cross-spectrum, therefore, of Departments that are tasked with delivering significant outcomes under the national development plan, not least climate-related outcomes. The group generally meets once a month and reports to Government on a regular basis. The first report was last week.

From my perspective as a Secretary General of a Department, big-ticket items that arise in the climate or energy area, whether they be new policy, policy development, a commitment of money or discussions about Estimates which affect this in particular, all come through me. We have a good framework in place to manage what needs to be managed on this front. In truth, I am not sure of the value of a new independent body. There is already another independent body out there. The committee has already Professor John FitzGerald, who is the chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council. He calls it straight, and he was straight with the committee on what he thought was going well and not so well with our climate agenda. We are obviously cognisant of that, and we listen closely to what the advisory council says. Ms Laura Burke is an ex-officiomember, as is Mr. Jim Gannon, the head of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, and other eminent members are well equipped to assess the issue and make recommendations, as they have done on a number of occasions. On that issue, I think we are well geared up.

I will ask Dr. John O'Neill to talk about the climate action regional offices because he has been heavily involved in the national adaptation area for some time now, and was instrumental in setting up the offices. I will ask Mr. Manley to comment on the RESS scheme and, in particular, the community dimension.