Mr. Tom Moylan:

I thank the Deputy for the question. There is an argument for another day about the local government reforms of 2014. However, in fairness to the then Minister, Phil Hogan, at that time, as part of those reforms, he asked the AILG, which was the new representative body following those reforms, if we would take on a training and education remit with our elected members. Over the last six years, we have developed a comprehensive training module in conjunction with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which has given us access to tremendous speakers across all Government Departments, sectors and public agencies. A number of the members who are at this afternoon's meeting have attended our training days and given briefings to our members. We have expert presenters made available to us as part of the training programme.

We want to take that training programme into the area of a continuous professional development programme for our members, and sitting parallel with that is a certified training module which we have pioneered with UCC. As I said, 26 members have just completed a level 7 certificate in climate action and local government. Hopefully, pending successful exams, they will have a level 7 QQI certificate later in the summer, and they will have that because of the AILG, which is a really good legacy for us.

That is what we want to do. We want to empower our members. We want to give them the required skills and knowledge to do that, so they can participate on these types of issues and they can speak at local authority level with confidence on the areas of climate action for housing, planning or whatever else because they have that skill set. That is our plan and we are certainly getting there.

I appreciate that certified training is not for everybody. We have a wide and diverse body of 949 councillors so we want to keep a tier under that of continuous professional development for our members. Over the years, we have seen local authority elected members giving 20, 30 or 40 years of service to their local authorities and maybe walking away with nothing as regards a certificate or a piece of paper to acknowledge that service. That is where we want to get to. That is our aim and we are doing that in conjunction with the Department and with the executive side of the local authorities as well. We are very grateful for the expert speakers who are made available to us right across the board.

With regard to the lack of willingness of local authority members in delivering on climate action at local government level, what I would say is that a lot of work is being done at the moment in regard to a review of the county and city development plans. As Mr. Mahon stated, our members have put in long hours over a long period, engaging with their executive and their planners, engaging with communities, engaging with the public and reviewing the submissions that have been made as part of this process. Climate action has really come to the fore as part of that process and we hear that on the ground with our members across the board.

The challenge once these plans are adopted and approved by the elected members is what happens then, and we are taking that challenge to our members. Their job cannot just be done when the development plan has been approved.

They must start delivering on the objectives of the development plan as well and bringing them into their everyday work as members of the local authority. That is the next challenge for us. We are pioneering more training with the Office of the Planning Regulator and with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and we are saying, "Your development plan has been approved now, so what happens next?" That is where we have to take this conversation with our elected members.

I hope that answers the questions.