Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests. Many of the questions have been covered so I might change the topic slightly and broaden it out to some of the stuff that has been raised with regard to the joined-up approach in planning. This committee heard recently about buildings that are being demolished as opposed to being repurposed, the carbon footprint of that, and that the best and most efficient building is the building that is still standing. Are the local authorities doing any type of analysis of what buildings could be repurposed? For example, the one that broke my heart was the Kevin Street technical college. It was a fantastic building and it has now been demolished, but I believe it could have been repurposed. Are local authorities looking at that?

Also, with regard to joined-up thinking when it comes to fossil fuel lock-in and water use around planning permission for data centres and data centres having to have their own gas generation on site, are the local authorities doing any analysis of whether that leaves them exposed in terms of lock-in to fossil fuel?

There is the identification of homes that are at risk of sea level rises and the plans to address that. We heard on a recent podcast about issues in Galway with moving back from the coastline and where it is possible build. Are we identifying the properties that might need coastal adaptation measures or properties that might not be saved? How do we engage with the people living in those houses?

Dublin City Council has passed a motion and is progressing work on community wealth building as has Limerick County Council. There are great examples of where community wealth building in Britain is having a fantastic impact in shortening supply chains, keeping the wealth in communities and facilitating just transition. After all, local authorities are anchor institutions and they have quite a lot of power when it comes to procurement and things like that. If they led by example through a community wealth building model, it would facilitate a just transition, shorten those supply chains and put in place restrictions around procurement so that, for instance, it would have to be energy efficient or use sustainable products rather than just buying at the lowest price. I do not know who might want to answer any of those.