Mr. Paddy Mahon:

I will take that question. As the Deputy stated, some local authorities have gone ahead and put people into some of these positions but, by and large, that has not happened across the sector. It is a resource issue. There is no point in denying that. There is great ambition, as I stated, but having the funding in place is critical for many local authorities. We have engaged, particularly with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, on this matter for more than a year. Mr. Mellett and his colleagues prepared a business case that was submitted earlier this year and helped to inform the Department in preparing its own internal business case that I understand is going through the departmental processes. Our expectation and hope is that it will secure funding to allow these resources, or some of them, to be put in place. We are awaiting a response from the Department in respect of what, if any, funding might be made available. What is critical to us at the moment is that although the ambition is there among our staff and the elected members, as the committee heard, there is a timing issue because we expect the Minister, before the end of the year, to direct every local authority to prepare its climate action plan. That will demand more resources straight away. The earlier we have people in place, the earlier we can prepare and put in place a meaningful climate action plan for every city and county council in the country.