Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Empowering Local Government and Local Communities to Climate Action: Discussion

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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That would give me cause for concern about implementation because when we read the documentation and the submissions, there is a lot of very good work and very good plans and policies, but we need to see them rolled out on the ground. If the local authorities do not have the staff or the skills and, let us face it, a lot of these skills are relatively new and five years ago are not something a local authority would have been really focused on, then I would have significant concerns about that. I know each of the counties and local authorities need to have identified a decarbonisation town that is going to be the pilot. I am looking at the range of activities that are required and it is huge. It would need a team of people to do that. They were established in 2021 and they have to do a baseline on emissions and they must have placemaking and active travel reports done, as well as implementation plans and spatial plans. All of this work was to be completed by the end of 2021 and they were to look at active travel, public transport and remote working job opportunities. It was a huge amount of work and the councils did not receive-----