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

In March 2023, I published statutory guidelines to assist local authorities in preparing their local authority climate action plans. Those guidelines include a requirement for ongoing monitoring and progress reporting. Each local authority must provide reporting arrangements which demonstrate accountability for the delivery of actions at various levels, including: reporting within the local authority to elected members, strategic policy committees or other forums; reporting at a sectoral level to aggregate towards performance of the local government sector on climate action; and reporting at national level, as part of the delivery of the national climate objective, to existing reporting structures for the national climate action plan, and additional reporting on progress of the local authority climate action plans.

My Department introduced action LG/24/3 to the 2024 climate action plan to develop a monitoring and reporting system for the local authority climate action plans in order to fulfil our national reporting obligations. This national monitoring and reporting system is currently being developed by my Department. My Department has developed a proposal on local authority climate key performance indicators, KPIs, to support the local authority climate action plans. We shared this in mid-May with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, climate action KPI working group. It will engage further with the CCMA on this to develop an agreed approach.

Further to my response to Parliamentary Question No. 75 of 14 May 2024, I understand that my Department has not had any engagement with Galway City or Galway County Council in relation to their local authority climate action plans to date. However, on several occasions, including in recent months, as Minister, I have met the county manager and the council’s director of services and shared informally an assessment of its plan and where we go next.

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