Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We absolutely should be fair to local authorities. I do not have information for Deputy Connolly on the timeline that led to the issuing of the guidelines from last Friday; what the statutory timeline was; and what it ought to have been but I am willing to talk to the Deputy about it afterwards, if she wants to find out more information. What I am referring to with regard to local authorities is the problem where there is a lot of discussion and talk about sustainable transport, for example, but when I go out to the local authorities all they want to talk to me about are new roads. When we allocate money for retrofitting, sometimes the local authorities do not spend the money that has been allocated to them. There is a great imbalance in the amounts of money drawn down from sustainable funds for different climate action areas between different local authorities, which would make one wonder why some local authorities do not spend the money even when they are given it. I guess that is the challenge for all local authorities and perhaps the best way to do this is to highlight and champion the local authorities that are doing well.

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