Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Challenge and Opportunity for Local Authorities in Climate Action: Discussion

Mr. Liam Bergin:

That is a very good point. Touching on the just transition piece earlier, the burden must be shared across the community. This challenges us to ensure that the plans we bring forward for discussion and adoption by councillors reflect that there is burden sharing there. There are some people who are disproportionately asked to contribute due to their geographic location, socioeconomic position or whatever it is. We must try to proof those plans to ensure that the councillors understand that they fairly represent the benefit to the community. From the planning perspective, we are going to have conflict or constructive and lively discussion in the council chamber. I do not think that is something we should try to avoid. It is something we should welcome provided we get the right results at the end of the day. I think that is a challenge for us as well as the executive to make sure we can bring it forward in a constructive way.