Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister totally, absolutely. They should show vision and they should lead. That is very difficult when staff are constantly moved, when the county council is seriously underfunded and staff are moved from department to department. As soon as they get any expertise, they are moved off under pressure. There is a serious role for the Government in properly resourcing and treasuring the staff who work for local authorities. I have a different view in respect of top management, however, which has utterly failed to deal with the challenge of climate change.

The Government is also at fault. A specific example of that is the decarbonisation zone. The city council did tremendous work and designated the area back in February 2021. They were hoping to bring out the plan by the end of the year. Then they were told to wait for the guidelines. The guideline came just this year and, interestingly, decarbonisation zones are described as a demonstration and a test for what is possible for decarbonisation and climate action at local and community levels. There are no resources or follow-up. They had to wait for those guidelines to come over two years later.

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