Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I have a question for the SEAI and will then focus on the Department on resourcing for local authorities. It has been acknowledged that local authorities play a huge role in meeting our targets. I was chair of the climate and biodiversity committee before I was elected. That was around the time the charter was announced. It was great to see this guidance from the Department but it did not seem to be matched with resourcing, which was a concern. I want to go into that a little.

SEAI representatives talk about all the different SEC network members but there are only 12 local authority members in the network. Can they explain why? We have 31 local authorities so that is a very small number that seem to be actively participating in the scheme.

The following is for the Department representatives and relates to funding: my understanding is that CARO has recommended a number of positions in each local authority in the climate action teams, including senior executive, liaison person, energy person, climate action officer, biodiversity person, environmental officers and green infrastructure person. That is nine staff per local authority. How many staff in each local authority are currently funded by the Department specifically to work in the climate action teams?