Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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75. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his Department’s role in the monitoring of the implementation of the Local Authority Climate Action Plans; the details of any engagement he or his Department has had to-date with Galway City or County Councils with regard to their LA CAPs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21573/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Local Authorities have a statutory requirement to prepare Local Authority Climate Action Plans (LA CAPs) under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021.

In March 2023, I published statutory guidelines to assist Local Authorities in preparing their plans. These guidelines include a requirement to ensure ongoing monitoring and progress reporting. Each Local Authority must provide for reporting arrangements which demonstrate accountability for the delivery of climate action at various levels, including:

• Reporting within the Local Authority to elected members, strategic policy committees, or other fora;
• Reporting at a sectoral level to aggregate towards the performance of the local government sector on climate action;
• Reporting at national level, as part of the delivery of the national climate objective, to the existing reporting structures for the national climate action plan, and additional reporting on progress in drafting the LA CAPs and on implementation.