Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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In regard to active travel, I know there has been significant funding for staff of local authorities but I would have expected to see a corresponding level of staff. In my own county of Wicklow, 12 additional staff have been put into the area of active travel and it would appear there are no staff to deal with the climate action charter that the Government has put in place. It seems an awful lot of requirements are being placed on local authorities but the money is not there to help them roll this out. This comes back to the comment made by Deputy Bruton that we need to make sure that people are supported in implementing this. We are two or three years into this. Ms Corcoran expects that this funding will be provided in the short term but what is the timeframe for that funding? My understanding is that if a council is looking for a staff member, the SEAI signs off on it but it has to be sanctioned by the Department. Is there a two-pronged approach and how long would that normally take?