Results 2,041-2,060 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: I feel that the civil servants are looking at me now. I will send you a note, Chair, to clarify how the indicators are agreed, the process whereby they are agreed, how long it takes before an indicator is agreed and then data are got out of it. It would be an idea to think of which indicators we should be following. That should be something between maybe the committee and the Department to...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: To be fair, I was asked about that earlier and I have committed to come back with more detail as to what the training consists of or what the reason is for the variation in numbers between years.
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: Would you like some information on what those air quality monitoring visits consist of?
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: We are starting with subhead B4. The Deputy asked about the big increase from €94 million to €355 million. It states in the Deputy's briefing note that the figure of €94.952 million excluded a capital carryover of €57 million during that year, which understates it somewhat. We did have a capital carryover that went into that. The plan in 2023 is to retrofit...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: Yes, next month. That was accounted for last year. The way the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform requested that this be done was that all of the money be drawn down before the end of the calendar year, then the money was transferred to ESB Networks to make sure it had the entire €1.6 billion for distribution to customers by the end of the...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: I will start with the first question, which is about the climate impact or the carbon impact of these schemes for retrofit. The Deputy will appreciate that there is not a simple relationship between the amount spent and the volume of emissions saved. Different interventions have different results. This is why we are targeting for example, attic insulation and wall insulation with an 80%...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: There are two points to be made on that, First, there should be a clear benefit to switching, and the packages should be better value than with the dumb meter version. Second, the data should be available in a simple way to everybody. If these benefits are not spelled out, people will not change readily. I take the Deputy's point on that. A total of 33,740 customers registered their...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: Does the Deputy envisage ESB Networks or the retailer analysing the usage?
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: I am told the CRU is leading on GDPR discussions both nationally and at EU level. The current position is that it must be customer-led.
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: I will make sure somebody speaks to the Data Protection Commissioner. We can discuss this again but I take the Deputy's point. It should be possible to be told easily the best plan to be on. It may require a degree of consent unless it is possible to anonymise the data or present them in an aggregate way that does not compromise people's privacy.
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy. One of those issues may come under programme C. Certainly, landfill sites for remediation-----
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: The Deputy asked about district heating. There is a new subhead for it. A new research programme will start on it, or a new scheme is being scaled up. There has been ongoing research on geothermal energy. A report is due for publication shortly. Research has been done involving my Department and Grangegorman campus. Some boreholes have been dug to depths of 1 km and 3 km to explore the...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has asked Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely to oversee the preparation of a governance review of IFI, and that is to be delivered within three to six months. No amount of money has been set aside for the costs of that. A review had been commissioned from a senior counsel last May. If Deputy Whitmore wishes, I can go into the details of that. It was a review of the...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: Was it published?
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: If Deputy Whitmore could bear with me for a moment, I will look for the information.
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: On 5 May last year, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, appointed Conleth Bradley SC under section 18 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010, which relates to the removal of members from office, those members being members of the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland, to carry out a review of the exercise by the board of its functions under the Act. Mr. Bradley's report was received by the Minister on 27...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: What is relevant to the Estimates in terms of Inland Fisheries Ireland is subhead C8. There is a new funding programme totalling €500,000 to support IFI in planning to address the mitigation of barriers to fish passage. This is part of a long-term programme which is starting under the EU water framework. It is work we are required to do, managed by the Department of Housing, Local...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: It is under subhead C8. Does the Deputy have that in her Estimates? It is the Estimate for 2023 and totals €500,000.
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: There is another €500,000 allocated from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Although €1 million is a small amount of money over a year, it is a first step. Some work can be done. There is a period of time where capacity is being ramped up. It is a long-term multi-year programme, over ten to 30 years. I expect the budget in future years will be in the...
- Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023) Ossian Smyth: What was the question about Whitestown and Bray? Can the Deputy repeat that?