Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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134. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 10 and 15 of 10 April 2025, when the implementation plans for decarbonisation zones in Galway city and county will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30105/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 10 and 15 of 10 April 2025, local authorities are at the forefront of climate action in Ireland. All 31 local authorities adopted statutory Local Authority Climate Action Plans (LACAPs) by Q1 2024, as required under climate legislation. Galway City and Galway County Council adopted their plans in February 2024.

As part of its plan, each local authority established a Decarbonising Zone (DZ) which is intended to be the focus for a range of climate mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity measures. Galway City Council’s DZ includes parts of Newcastle, Rahoon, Shantalla, and Westside, while Galway County Council selected Oileáin Árann/the Aran Islands as its DZ.

To support local authorities, my Department established a DZ Advisory Group made up of relevant departments and agencies to provide support and guidance at a national level. My Department is providing €5.8m annually to support implementation of the Plans by funding Climate Action Coordinators and Officers in each local authority. My Department is also providing €2m annually to the four Climate Action Regional Offices across the country which are supporting local authorities to implement their plans by providing a coordination and guidance role.

The Statutory Guidelines issued in March 2023 do not require local authorities to prepare separate Implementation Plans for their DZs. Local authorities have entered full implementation phase of their Climate Action Plans for which there is ongoing monitoring and reporting required. There are several statutory reporting avenues that local authorities must engage with to communicate progress on implementation of the CAPs:

• Internal reporting: report on progress through relevant local authority governance structures.
• Monitoring and Reporting System (M&R): report on energy performance and emission targets annually to the SEAI.
• Sectoral Performance: report annually by way of KPIs to inform the performance of the local government sector on climate action.
• National Climate Action Plan: report through existing reporting sectoral structures for the national climate action plan. In addition, separate reporting is required to my Department in relation to progress on implementation.