Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Dialogue is key. The Oireachtas committee will have a role in that. We represent communities and can provide a forum where people can come in, on the record, to engage in the whole process. We also need to go beyond that and beyond the regional assemblies that have been set up so far, to much more local and detailed discussions on what this transition is going to look like. From my perspective, the broad European approach gives us room because it is not a case of top down or that the Commission knows best. It is trying to agree on the broad, overall effort-sharing arrangement, while leaving nation states free to be flexible around the solutions that exist. The climate fund, which allows communities or businesses to come forward with ideas, is a good example of the existence of bottom-up solutions here and not just top down. We will debate the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) and Provision of Central Treasury Services Bill 2020 later today, which will help to support that. Critically, and particularly in areas such as retrofitting of homes, improvement of local environment through afforestation, rewetting or through other mechanisms, it will not work with just a top-down approach. It has to involve community engagement, community energy and the supply of new systems. That involves us listening and engaging with local communities to make it their plan.

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