Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021
262. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if all local authorities are required to employ climate officers; the number of local authorities that have climate officers employed; the funding available for climate officers in local authorities to employ local climate action plans; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58966/21]
View answerUnder section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.
My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.
However granular data, in terms of the number of local authorities that employ climate officers is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from individual local authorities.
The funding for these posts comes from the local authorities own resources.
