Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This relates to amendment No. 43, which is another aspect of that issue to which I will come in a moment. Engaging with the issues of just transition and climate change is not the remit of just one Department. The climate plan is meant to be a whole-of-government, joined-up approach. We should not be in a situation where Ministers throw the issue to each other. The policies and setting goals for retrofitting may come from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, but the engagement with landlords through the housing assistance payment or rent supplement is an important lever and that sits within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, as does responsibility for the fuel allowance. Fuel allowance and its intersection with turbary rights comes into this. I will also come to another issue in amendment No. 43 that relates directly to the Department. If we intend to be serious about taking the type of transformative action that is required to address our climate targets, each Department will have its carbon budget and will have to account to the Oireachtas for the actions it will have taken. It will not be sufficient for each Department to say that it does not wish to cut across other Departments or take decisions. It is important that each Department engages in the just transition and I believe the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection will be at the centre at it.

I will not press this amendment because I am focusing on its intersection with amendment No. 43. I intend either to press amendment No. 43 on this Stage and to resubmit amendment No. 41 or to consider some form of combined amendment that I will press on Report Stage. This is an opportunity. It is not an attempt to add to the workload of the Department. Climate action and just transition are front-loaded mandated actions across the Government, but we have yet to see the Minister's Department set out its vision of how it will contribute to the transformation that is required.