Results 721-740 of 25,713 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Prices (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) (Cap on Market Revenues) Act 2023 was enacted in November 2023 and was commenced on 4 December 2023. This Act implemented a cap on market revenues of specific electricity producers, traders and intermediaries as required in Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 of 6 October 2022 on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices. The...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Legislative Programme (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: On 22 April 2024 the Government approved the drafting of a Bill to amend the Air Pollution Act, 1987. The General Scheme and regulatory impact assessment were published on 8 August 2024 and are available to download at: www.gov.ie/en/publication/abad8-general-scheme-and-regulator y-impact-assessment-of-air-pollution-act-amendment-bill-2024 / My Department requested pre-legislative...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Renewable Energy Generation (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) mandates the establishment of Community Benefit Funds (CBFs) for projects participating in the scheme to ensure that local communities hosting renewable energy projects directly benefit from the country's transition to sustainable energy. Each RESS Project is required to contribute a minimum payment of €2 per Megawatt-hour (MWh) of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Public Procurement Contracts (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: All procurement within my Department, is conducted in accordance with applicable EU and national regulations and guidelines and is subject to regular review and oversight to ensure that budgetary control is maintained over the life cycle of individual projects. Procurement takes place in the context of Directive 2014/24/EU supported by the Procurement Guidelines published by the Office of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Bodies (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: There are a number of bodies under my Department's aegis with powers to make determinations, decisions or authorisations under regulatory functions or appeal functions: the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA), the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Mining Board. With...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Policy (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As outlined in the Programme for Government, this Government is committed to taking decisive action to radically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and to achieve a 51% reduction in emissions from 2018 to 2030, and to achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050. In the Programme for Government we also set out our commitment to achieving 80% of Ireland’s electricity generation...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Management (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is engaged on a number of initiatives to reduce and tackle textile waste. The separate collection of textiles is essential to maximise opportunities for reuse and supporting our transition to a circular economy. Currently, our separate collection system for textiles consists of a national network of local authority and charity bring banks, charity retail shops as well as some...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Policy (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As outlined in the Programme for Government, this Government is committed to taking decisive action to radically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and to achieve a 51% reduction in emissions from 2018 to 2030, and to achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050. The Programme for Government set out the commitment to achieving 80% of Ireland’s electricity generation from...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Official Engagements (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I can confirm that I did not meet with the Mayor of Miami during my recent visit as part of the 2025 Saint Patrick's Day events.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Noise Pollution (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The European Communities (Environmental Noise) Regulations 2018 (S. I. No 549 of 2018) transpose EU Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. The Directive aims to provide a common framework to avoid, prevent or reduce, on a prioritised basis, the harmful effects of exposure to environmental noise. The Environmental Noise Directive (END) is...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Conservation (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department funds a number of grant schemes, administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. Grant support for window and door replacement is available under the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme (One Stop Shop service) as well as under the Community Energy Grant Scheme as part of a whole...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Social Media (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department ensures, to the greatest extent possible, that our published video content is accessible and includes closed captioning or subtitling. In 2024, 100% of videos posted on our social media channels were captioned. No videos with Irish sign language translations were posted. The information requested in relation to the agencies under the aegis of my Department is an...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Illegal Dumping (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Under the Waste Management Act, the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to illegal dumping lies with the local authorities. It is a matter for each local authority to determine the most appropriate awareness, enforcement, clean-up and disposal actions in relation to illegal dumping, taking account of local circumstances and priorities. As such my Department does...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Air and Water Pollution (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Ireland is currently not in exceedance of any of our legal requirements for air quality levels. The EPA air quality monitoring network is used to determine our compliance with legal limits and all relevant data is available from www.airquality.ie. Amendments to the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive have set more stringent legally binding limits for Ireland to achieve by 2030 and plans are...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Meetings (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Following the damage caused to the Telecoms networks by Storm Éowyn, my colleague Minister O'Donovan met with senior executives of both mobile and fixed telecoms providers on 14 February, including Eir, Three and Vodafone to reflect on the lessons to be learned, and measures to be considered to build further resilience into telecommunications networks to avoid, where feasible and...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Traffic Offences (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The table below details the number of court disqualifications notified to my Department in each of the years 2020-2024 and the number of those licences that were not surrendered, both for learner permit licence holders. A notification of disqualification is issued by the Courts Service for drivers convicted of a court disqualification, the notification includes the requirement to surrender...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Sector Pensions (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 214 and 264 together. From the outset I would like to clarify that I, as Minister for Transport, have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, issues in relation to CIÉ pension schemes are primarily a matter for the trustees of the pension schemes, the CIÉ, Group and their employees. As a commercial...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Sector Pensions (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 215 and 253 together. From the outset I would like to clarify that I, as Minister for Transport, have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, issues in relation to CIÉ pension schemes are primarily a matter for the trustees of the pension schemes, the CIÉ, Group and their employees. As a commercial...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on these roads are funded from Councils’ own resources and supplemented by State Road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the local authority....

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (25 Mar 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport; however, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. The issues raised by the Deputy are an operational matter for Irish Rail in conjunction with the National Transport Authority. Therefore, I have referred the Deputy's question to Irish Rail and the...