Results 2,061-2,080 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: On the Bray dump, I understand works are being carried out by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, with the co-operation of Wicklow County Council. Funding was allocated and they are more than two years into the work. I will revert to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and ask how it is progressing with that. On the specific question on the dump in Bray, I may have some...

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 sorry; I will have to revert to the Deputy after the meeting. I do not have that information to hand. There is an allocation of €9 million for ten illegal dumps. I will get the details the Deputy wants on any specific dump.

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 an allocation of €550,000 for the remediation of legacy mines, which are listed as Avoca silver mines and others. A feasibility study for the management and remediation of the Avoca mines site was completed in 2008. It costed two options for the long-term remediation of the mine, with capital costs of €58.5 million and €46 million, respectively. Both have...

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: My understanding is the Government has, based on the feasibility study, made a decision to proceed and on what course of action to take. It will spend €3 million as soon as possible on urgent health and safety works. Some €450,000 has been allocated for this particular mine for this year. Does the Deputy feel a further feasibility study is warranted?

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 come back to the Deputy on that. The 2008 study is old. A feasibility study from 2008 looks at technology options which have changed a lot since then. The Department has committed to updating that report based on the technology that exists now and coming up with a revised remediation plan and costs later this year.

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. I will ask my officials to get back to him with a note on the dump in Belcamp in a similar way to other dumps. He made a general point about circular economy indicators. Similar to the previous question about key indicators, it would probably be worth having a review of them. I am open to any suggestions on that. The Deputy also asked about the sectoral targets....

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 first question was about what shape the targets will take. When I look at the existing targets there are a lot of recycling targets but just about no reuse targets. I was looking at the waste electrical and electronic equipment, WEEE, scheme rules, which are due for update this year. The WEEE scheme, as the Deputy knows, is for bringing back electronics to retailers and so on. There...

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 not sure how avoidance would be measured, for example, which is what we are doing with coffee cups in that we are trying to get people not to use them, let alone reuse or recycle them. Avoidance is the first option. I am happy the French are introducing repairability ratings and there is an EU-wide scheme due on repairability and durability labelling. However, there is always an...

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 Government mandates that every Department follow its public procurement frameworks and if the public-----

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: How would energy efficiency among public sector bodies be measured? Would expenditure be measured?

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 ask the EPA for advice on that.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Traveller Community (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I welcome the students from Mitchelstown. I am attending the House on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I will read out the answer he provided for this but I will address those very specific questions Senator Flynn put in the follow-up. The Government is acutely aware of the impact the recent increases in global energy prices are having...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Traveller Community (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: There are 387 Traveller households affected by this issue. The amount of money transferred to the local authorities was €284,000 to be split between them. That is to cover not just the new three payments but also the original payment that families missed out on. The local authorities were told that they had to use the money and pay it directly to the Traveller families so it should...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Traveller Community (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: Yes, it is National Traveller MABS that is doing all the work.

Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: From the Seanad (22 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I think there was some confusion in the Dáil. The amendment was not accepted and then later on I said it was accepted and I think whatever I had said first was taken. We had to amend it in the Seanad to put it back to the way it was and back to the format it is in. I can understand why that would seem strange.

Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: From the Seanad (22 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: Exactly. There were a number of references to public order in the Dáil that had to be corrected in the Seanad because they were not correctly amended when we were in the Dáil.

Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: From the Seanad (22 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I am making this deletion because it was accepted in error. Section 25 of Part 3 which serves the same purpose by a high-risk vendor notice to specify the Minister considers it necessary to take the measures contained in the order to control risks to the security of electronic communications networks or electronic communications services which may affect national security and where the...

Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: From the Seanad (22 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I will. I thank the Deputy for the question. This is an amendment that was proposed by Senator Higgins in the Seanad. It is one of a number of amendments I accepted. It strengthens the customer charter provisions in the Bill. It ensures each provider must measure its performance against the standards set out in its customer charter and then it must report to the Commission for...

Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Bill 2022: From the Seanad (22 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I suggest the Bill has already been passed by this House.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Bord na Móna (23 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I welcome the opportunity to outline the position on these matters on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The Minister apologises for not being available to attend in person. I should point out that Bord na Móna is a commercial State company. Operational matters such as land use are the responsibility of the board...