Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that it has gone into the non-competitive section and that the Department is working on this. My difficulty is that I have no analysis before me as to what happened in RESS 1 and 2, where community groups were involved. Is there documentation, data or an analysis of what did and did not work which led the Department to what theoretically would be a very welcome change in terms of moving into the non-competitive area?

My trust is at an all-time low. We are facing a precipice in regard to climate action and we need urgent action. I will digress a tiny bit, but my comments are related to my question. I am often very critical of it, but Galway City Council did its job in 2021 regarding a decarbonisation zone. It set out the zone, but two and a half years later nothing has happened. I live in the Claddagh and know Galway very well. I was born and bred there. I see huge opportunities for community led projects to make communities independent, but we need an analysis from the Department in terms of how decisions are being made.

See this speech in context