Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Skills and Supports Required for Businesses to Meet Decarbonisation Targets: Discussion

Mr. Paul Healy:

It is probably a pace we are happy or fully comfortable with, given the urgency of the issue. We have been working with industry, and they with us, on the broader decarbonisation, sustainability and green-upskilling space going back to 2013 and 2014. Over the nine or ten years since, we have increased significantly our investment, working in collaboration with companies and developing these programmes hand-in-hand with industry to meet these. Equally, we are seeing support from our Department in terms of budget and other supports to allow us to address these particular challenges. To answer the question, there still remains a gap in awareness, in knowledge and skills and in broader supports that we can bring to small firms in the domestic sector in particular to help them with the transition.