Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going to try again. Has the Minister issued the direction to the local authorities to prepare their climate action plans? The Department is under a legal obligation to do that within 18 months. That 18 months is up next Tuesday, 7 March. Has that happened? If it has not happened, will it happen before 7 March?

In regard to a history lesson on the decarbonisation zones, let me put on the record that I am praising Galway City Council. In April 2021, Galway City Council submitted its application, expecting to get approval and make an implementation plan by the end of 2021. As of February 2022, one year ago, 29 of the 31 local authorities, and this is my third time to say this, had submitted applications for decarbonisation zones. Two years later, no decarbonisation zone has been implemented despite the urgency and the emergency declared, because they had to wait for the statutory guidelines that were published last Friday. We still do not know whether the legal directions have issued, as they are legally required to do.

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