Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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179. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will consider establishing a pilot project to test the approach of having sustainability coaches in local communities (details supplied). [3874/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, and the Waste Action Plan 2020-2025, A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy (September 2020) committed to a range of actions to support Ireland’s transition to a circular economy. This included the adoption of a high-level whole-of-government Circular Economy Strategy.

The Circular Economy Strategy (December 2021) provides a national policy framework for Ireland’s transition to a circular economy. The Strategy sets out an overall approach to circular economy policy, identifies key objectives and indicates the direction of future policy development. It is intended to publish the second Circular Economy Strategy by end-2023, and the approach of having sustainability coaches in local communities will be considered in that context.

In 2022 my Department allocated €3.5 million to Local Authorities to support the development and implementation of Local Authority Climate Action Plans (LA CAPs). This funding will allow Local Authorities to recruit Climate Action Coordinators and Climate Action Officers, whose role will be to enable and embed a new culture of ambitious climate action across functional areas such has housing, roads and planning.

The specialist resources will contribute the expertise, analysis, guidance and core focus that climate action urgently needs; leveraging the integrated resources of the 31 local authorities, the voices of 949 elected members, the capacity of 28,000 local authority staff, and the reach and impact that local government can uniquely deliver, across Ireland.

To date 27 climate action coordinators/officers are in place - recruitment campaigns are ongoing.

Under strand 2 of the Climate Action Fund Community Climate Action Programme, the “Climate Coaches for a Just Transition and Resilient Communities”, a project from Sustainable Ireland Cooperative Society Ltd, is being funded. It aims create a “Community of Practice” to co-develop a tailored training programme for local Climate Coaches and a toolkit to catalyse, scale and accelerate climate action and a just transition through sustainable community-led local development. This is a project in partnership with the North & South Tipperary Development Company, and Tipperary and Waterford Public Participation