Results 3,121-3,140 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: My Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers, will bring the legislation to the Dáil first and we are aiming for the end of this first quarter, roughly. The legislation will have to get through the Dáil and the Seanad. Like with all these traffic Bills, there probably will be some additional elements included. I do not have all the final details here but I absolutely agree. I...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: There were 65 new and enhanced routes last year. Some of the routes were enhanced with new services and additional frequency. There are also a significant number of new routes, which have been hugely successful. There has been a roughly 115% increase in patronage year on year. There are 280,000 people with new and enhanced bus services and it is intended to further expand that. It was...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I understand the concern. My understanding of the reason for that divergence is because they are not necessarily setting the zones by rail track mileage, but rather by distance as the crow flies, so to speak. This is something for which NTA has core responsibility. The organisation went to public consultation last year and the realignment of both rail and other public transport fares has...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I can understand the frustration. To answer the two substantive points, firstly, my understanding is that the reason for O'Connell Bridge being the point from which distance is measured, and it being as the crow flies rather than rail track distance, is that there was a desire to have an integrated system where it would be the same for both bus and rail. One would be looking to set...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The national planning framework is our guiding light in many different ways, particularly in the context of transport. It states we need to get better balanced regional development, more compact development and low-carbon development. When it comes to aviation, as is the case with every other sector, it serves the interests of our country to see more balanced development of aviation...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: On the Deputy's final point about the application for a PSO service to continental Europe, I had not realised that might have been a potential factor in other commercial aviation interests looking at a route out of Shannon. I will look at that or liaise with the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, because I do not believe we will able to get a PSO service out of Shannon into continental...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That is a fair point. My officials and I will talk to Irish Rail to see what might be done. Integrating the ticket with car parking seems to make sense if it is being used, as the Deputy said, for other non-public transport-related parking. There is a lot of sense in that.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I agree with the Deputy. There is a resolution, I hope, for the immediate issue. We have delivery of some 41 new ICR carriages. They will start coming into operation this spring, in the next month or two. Where there are particular pinch-points in service capability with people standing for long distances or any clear demand which needs to be met, Irish Rail will deploy those carriages....

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I do not disagree with the Deputy. This is a tricky one because the scheme was always based on a tax model. We have been talking to the Department of Finance to broaden it so it could, as the Deputy said, cover someone who is unemployed or a student who does not pay tax and is therefore not able to accrue the benefit. That is a matter for the Department of Finance and my Department. It...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We were agreeing on so many things. It was going in a direction where we were like-minded but on this matter we have different views. Deputy Crowe lives close to Sixmilebridge, I think.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That neck of the woods. There may be some hope because we are also going to build a new railway station in Moyross. Rather than having to drive into Limerick city, the Deputy may be able to cycle down to the Moyross station and be whisked into town and on from there to wherever. I have a different view on this matter. It was not that the company left the scheme. The company,...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The Deputy is right. The number of recent instances involving fatalities has been tragic. The tragic accident in Carlow last week was possibly the worst of those. We need to invest in the protection and renewal of our roads and in addressing some of black spot areas where the risk of accidents occurring is higher. Protection and renewal are the cornerstone because, if there is a solid...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: If the Deputy looks at our expenditure on local roads in particular, he will see that the vast majority goes on smaller works. As I set out in my opening statement, I believe we are only expending €70 million or the like in respect of new roads. Most of the expenditure is on simpler measures that can make a profound difference, for example, introducing footpaths and traffic calming...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I agree with the Deputy about the safe routes to school programme being the centre point of safer transport for all our communities. The great advantage of schools, particularly primaries, is that they are at the centre of our communities, so they are a way of providing better and safer transport systems for every town and village across the country. The programme is very popular, with 930...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It was 930.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The Deputy is right, but we need to recognise that it is changing. The number of public transport users last year was up 25% compared with the previous year. That is phenomenal. Included in that figure is Dublin Bus. However, the Deputy is right, as we need to go further and faster. He is also right that access to drivers has probably been one of the biggest constraints. Getting...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Last year we launched 65 new or enhanced services. Of these, 24 were new routes and 41 were enhanced services, which usually means much more frequent journeys. Approximately 194 towns and villages benefit from this. My understanding is that expenditure last year was on budget and we spent the full allocation. This is very complicated because often we start a service at the end of the...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, our view is that the full expenditure was used. Having had a difficult couple of years because of Covid and the planning system, we spent all of our budget last year. There was not an underspend on the capital or current side. We had full use of all our budget.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I apologise I was distracted at the very start of the question. I ask Deputy O'Rourke to repeat it.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It is going to be tight. With regard to current expenditure, as I was saying earlier on, in Covid we had significant non-core one-off emergency funding to get us through. This is unwinding as we continue to come out of Covid and come to more normal times. The current side will be particularly difficult. It is always the area where it is most difficult to get commitments from Department of...