Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to express my delight with the funding announced yesterday by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, for communities to get funding for climate action projects. There is a commitment to €30 million over the next 18 months and another €30 million 18 months later. To break it down, it gives an opportunity for community groups or individuals who want to work with community groups to look for funding under five themes: home energy, travel, food and waste, shopping and recycling, and local climate and environmental action. This is really positive because everybody knows that climate is at an emergency stage and that we need to do all we can at every level from the bottom up and from the top down as well.

I will give an example of some of the funding applications that could be made. They include, community electric vehicle, EV, charging points, small renewable energy projects, community EVs, bike parking, repair hubs, food growing and bulk buying of energy for a group of houses. It is worth looking into. It will be run through Pobal. Some €24 million of the initial €30 million is going to the local authorities, but €6 million will be available through Pobal. I strongly suggest that people who are interested get involved. There are lots of great community volunteers and activists all over the country, and we are not short of them in County Clare. There will be a webinar to inform people more clearly on 18 and 25 November. All the information will be available on pobal.ie. This is an important initiative that the entire House should support and inform their communities about, because for too long we have had to do everything without any funding. There have been volunteers and pioneers for ages but now we see real money being provided to make it easier for communities. Every community must look at climate change and see what it needs to do in its local area. Think globally and act locally is more true now than ever and it is good to see the funding put behind that. I thank the Minister for helping people to get through this period. A just transition will happen if we can get the money to local communities at grassroots level.