Results 2,021-2,040 of 9,550 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: A key objective of the speed limit review is to align speed limits with the safe system approach to managing safety on the road network. The safe system approach is a means of managing and developing the road network so that, by design, it is forgiving of human error and mitigates serious collisions. In response to the upward trend in road deaths in recent years, we sought Government...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: Many of the HGVs and much of the logistics network use the motorway system and national primary roads, on which, as I said, the limits will remain as they are. They have a higher engineering standard compared with some of the other roads. It is important to have a lower baseline in highly urbanised areas, villages and towns where there are schools and vulnerable road users are at risk. We...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Dublin Airport Authority (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Dublin Airport Authority has statutory responsibility for the management, operation and development of Dublin Airport. The cap of 32 million passengers per annum currently in place at the airport is a condition attached to the planning permission granted for Terminal 2. The condition was put in place principally to limit the amount of traffic...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Dublin Airport Authority (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: As I stated in my previous response, they provided the methodology in how the passenger cap is calculated and its enumeration. The total number of number passengers that passed through the terminals was 31.9 million, in excess of 1 million connecting passengers use the airport terminals and more than 500,000 included transit passengers did not leave the plane or were search-and-rescue and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Dublin Airport Authority (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The matters relating to enforcement of a planning decision are a matter for Fingal County Council, as the relevant planning authority. They will assess the methodology used in the enumeration of passengers. As I have said, if one reads the planning condition, it relates to pressure on infrastructure roads and public transport. Dublin Airport and, indeed, the wider economic approach will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I share the Deputy's sympathies with the families of the three people who were killed in Carlow overnight. Published in December 2021, the Government’s road safety strategy for 2021 to 2030 has the target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% this decade. It is underpinned by the Vision Zero policy. Vision Zero has been adopted across the EU and aims to eliminate...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: What you failed to mention in your contribution was that the Road Safety Authority sought additional allocation for additional initiatives. It has significant reserves as an agency and it was then permitted to spend €5.6 million in additional campaigns to underpin additional initiatives. You did not give the full picture in your contribution. Also, you dismissed reducing speed...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: It has a significant evidence base. If Sinn Féin is going to play a populist line on speed limits, I ask you to get behind the actual evidence and support that initiative in the Oireachtas rather than trying to divide opinion. When it comes to the issue of enforcement, yes, it needs to improve and yes, the Garda does need to provide additional prioritization of enforcement in the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: That is not true. There is a lot of work between local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland on investing in specific dangerous junctions. There is a work programme around that where there are improvements on certain roads. TII will set out further information on that. The legislation we are trying to advance has a core evidence base, addressing speed limits and anomalies...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I take the wider concern from the Deputy, others and certainly the victims' organisations on the need to improve enforcement. That is something I raise at every meeting I have with An Garda Síochána and senior management in An Garda Síochána. We do need to see enforcement improve and we need to see the numbers in roads policing units improve. I am not dismissing that...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Test (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: As the Deputy may be aware, under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the RSA has statutory responsibility for the National Driving Test service. As the employer of driver testers, contractual terms are a matter for the RSA. However, I am informed that at the end of 2023 there were 177 testers employed by the Authority, of which 127 were on permanent contracts and 50 on shorter term...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Test (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I propose to take Questions Nos. 22 and 76 together. As the Deputy may be aware, under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the RSA has statutory responsibility for the National Driving Test service. As the employer of driver testers, contractual terms are a matter for the RSA. However, I am informed that at the end of 2023 there were 177 testers employed by the Authority. The service...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Ports Policy (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The ship in question is located in the Port of Drogheda. Ownership of this port company was transferred to Louth County Council in 2017 and oversight of the company rests with the county council. It is therefore advised that any queries regarding the projected dates of removal of the ship from the Port of Drogheda be directed to Louth County Council, or to the Department of Housing, Local...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Regional Airports (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The Regional Airports Programme 2021-2025 supports Ireland’s smallest airports i.e., those that provide connectivity and handle fewer than one million annual passengers (on average over the two preceding financial years). By virtue of its size and passenger numbers Shannon Airport was not eligible for funding under the Programme until 2022. At that time Shannon Airport became...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Test (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. This includes the locations and operation of driving test centres. I have therefore referred the question to the Authority for reply. I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response is not received within 10 days. Pending this more detailed...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Ports Policy (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I am committed to facilitating the Commercial Irish State ports under my remit as positive contributors to the offshore renewable energy industry to support Ireland to meet its ambitious targets of 5GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030, with a further 2GW in development for the production of green hydrogen and other non-grid uses. Supporting the development of port infrastructure is...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Regional Airports (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The Regional Airports Programme 2021-2025 provides that a mid-term review be undertaken in 2023. My Department carried out a public consultation process last year to inform the review and officials have submitted their assessment to me which I am now considering. The review has considered the scope of the Programme, how it is currently delivering on its objectives, primarily in the...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030 has the target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030 and achieving Vision Zero by 2050. The second annual review of the Road Safety Strategy took place in recent weeks, where road safety partners and agencies reviewed progress in the context of reversing the alarming trends in road fatalities. In addition...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Electric Vehicles (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 creates a new vehicle category, called powered personal transporters (PPTs), which includes e-scooters. My Department had expected to commence the parts of the Act relating to PPTs, and to introduce regulations for e-scooters, following the EU TRIS process under the Single Market Transparency Directive (EU) 2015/1535. However, some technical and legal...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Tax Code (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The rates of motor tax for goods vehicles apply to vehicles which are '...constructed or adapted for use and used for the conveyance of goods, or burden of any other description, in the course of trade or business...'. In order to verify that a vehicle meets these criteria, the first taxing of a goods vehicle by a vehicle owner must be done at the owner's local motor tax office. Article 3...