Eoin Ó Broin
Ceist:169. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will provide a list of names of relevant bodies under the Climate Act 2021. [11355/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 1 March 2022
Ceisteanna (169)
Freagraí scríofa
The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, establishes a legally binding framework with clear targets and commitments, and provides that the necessary structures and processes are embedded on a statutory basis to ensure Ireland achieves its national, EU and international climate goals and obligations in the near and long term. In order to achieve our statutory objectives, the Act also introduces a number of new policy instruments, including a series of successive carbon budgets and sectoral targets, annual revisions to the Climate Action Plan, and a National Long Term Climate Action Strategy. The Act establishes a clear relationship, and a requirement for consistency, between these policy instruments and our 2050 national climate objective. Local Authorities are also required to produce individual climate action plans.
In this regard, relevant bodies are defined under Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 as meaning ‘public bodies’ and ‘prescribed bodies’ as defined in Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014.
‘Public bodies’ refers to, among others, Government Departments, agencies and public higher education institutions. ‘Prescribed bodies’ refers to entities declared by order, following consultation with relevant Ministers and/or Committees, to be relevant for the purposes of the 2014 Act.
The Deputy will appreciate that the number of bodies covered by this legislation is vast and subject to change, which is why they are defined as opposed to set out in a Schedule to the Act which would go out of date over time. However, in order to assist the Deputy, I would point out that the Central Statistics Office regularly publish a list of public bodies which is available on: www.cso.ie/en/methods/governmentaccounts/classificationdecisions/registerofpublicsectorbodiesinireland/.
Relevant bodies will have a general obligation, under section 15 of the 2015 Act, to perform their functions, in so far as practicable, in a manner consistent with the requirements of the various plans and strategies under the legislation, and furthering the achievement of the national climate objective.