Summer’s nearly over – back to work!

Summer’s nearly over – back to work!

It’s been almost two months since school finished up for summer. As sure as school closes down for summer so too does Leinster House. Before the summer break we had a cabinet reshuffle so I expect newly appointed Ministers will have spent some time getting acquainted with their new role. Which brings me back to the little bit of work I managed to get done while house hunting during the general school holiday madness.

The Environmental Pillar will seek to meet newly appointed Ministers during the coming months. Plenty of preparation will go into maximising the time allocated to meeting the Minister. Going prepared is key to success. dib dib 🙂

So here are the questions I want to ask a couple of the Ministers.

For Alex White, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources:

• Does the Minister support the establishment of a working group or task force to explore comprehensive public participation in energy policies, plans and projects?
• What steps are planned to ensure that the current green paper consultation complies with the Aarhus convention? Given that many rural communities have little or no internet access the current trend of online submissions is inadequate.
• Will the minister commit a team to work with the Environmental Pillar and/or the People’s Energy Charter to explore ways that we can devise a national energy transition plan based on comprehensive public participation?

For Alan Kelly, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government:

• What are the Ministers plans to ensure compliance with the Aarhus convention, especially in relation to national energy policy?
• Does the Minister support the establishment of a working group or task force to explore comprehensive public participation?

Following on from that we need resources to support action to address the issue of public participation. That’s in for the budget proposal.

I have grown to realise that summer in Ireland is not very active for an “activist” but boy does Autumn make up for it! Cue the regrouping meetings, quarterly catch ups, training courses – all on top of a new school year, in a new school and a new home.

I can’t wait 🙂

Theresa O’Donohoe

August 24th 2014