Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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56. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the breakdown of costs associated with the Climate Change Advisory Council for the three most recent years; his views on plans to resource the Council for completing the responsibilities in the Climate Action Bill 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32504/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Climate Change Advisory Council was established by Ministerial Order (S.I. No 25 of 2016) on 18 January 2016 pursuant to section 8 of the Climate Change and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. The Advisory Council consisted of eleven members appointed by Government, acting in a part-time capacity for a statutory five-year term. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 strengthens the role of the Climate Change Advisory Council, tasking it, inter alia, with proposing carbon budgets to the Minister. To enable this the bill expands the Climate Change Advisory Council from eleven to fourteen members, and provides that future appointments to the Council provide for a greater range of relevant expertise and gender balance. These additional members will be renumnerated in the same manner as the current group membership.

The overall costs associated with the operation of the Advisory Council are provided for through the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is funded, in part, through my Department’s Vote. The costs for the last three years are set out in the table below. Climate Change Advisory Council breakdown of expenditure 2018-2020

In addition, The Climate Change Advisory Council is supported in its work by four full-time EPA employees. Their salary cost is not included in the costs shown.