Results 22,661-22,680 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I do not agree with the last point. There is no reduction in the incentive for people to reduce their energy use. There are other mechanisms in this regard. People are arguing for a cap on energy bills, which would, as we have seen in other countries, bring about an increase in the use of gas and energy overall. Our approach was specifically designed to be climate-proofed and-----

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: This is why I do stand up for a universal payment. I also stand up for targeted supports, and this is why the social welfare provisions I mentioned are critical. I do not believe, however, that they on their own would provide a sufficient response. The scale of the price increases has put people right across society in real difficulty. Often people may be outside the social welfare system...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: This goes back to what was said earlier. The MPRN is the only way to do this, if the payments are to be automatic and without the need for an application. As I said, once we start moving away from this approach, where payments would be made based on an application or screening, then we will be getting into a system that will be much more expensive. A certain amount of money might be saved...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: Without straying, hopefully, too much from the subject in hand, regarding the resources to mitigate the effects of climate action, which includes active travel, we have provided an additional 230 or 240 staff. It took time for the local authorities to get them in place, but they are there now. In previous years, it was not possible for the monies allocated to be spent. This will no longer...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: My understanding is that those group schemes are provided for under the existing measure. Where a tenant has a difficulty in a group scheme or in a multi-unit development, there was a mechanism for them to go to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, to ensure that their landlord was allocating. Our evidence from the first application of this energy credit was that it got to 99.6% of...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We need to ensure that our auction system delivers. It will deliver. We are seeing a solar revolution happening. The companies are seeing a fivefold increase in demand. It is an absolute explosion that will go further. From talking to energy companies, I hear that battery storage technology is evolving. The deployment of that will go way beyond what previously might have been expected....

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We will need to continue to monitor Covid as the Minister for Health said during the week. What the Deputy said is true; buses are starting to fill up. The numbers using public transport are rising significantly on the back of the end of the Covid pandemic, but also as a result of lower fares. Many bus services are not providing the reliable services that we expect. It is the role of the...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It will be over the next year. However, as I said, work needs to be done to decide the rates that will apply and much will depend on what the energy prices are. There is a real complexity with the inframarginal pricing. It is clear that the solidarity contribution will only in effect really apply to one company, the Corrib gas field. With inframarginal it is complex because there are...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: When it comes to the solidarity contribution, there would be a single company. On the supplier, light and generator side, I would imagine 50 to 100. I am guessing on that. It is difficult to know but I would imagine it is of that order.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I set out some of the details in response to Deputy Devlin's questions. It is primarily staff. It may include the likes of stakeholder engagement and building evidence of research. One could bring in contracting expertise and so on but it is primarily, in my mind, their internal resource capability to be able to marshal other elements of the local authority. Indeed, to go back to the...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I stated earlier on that the County and City Management Association, CCMA, and others have been involved in terms of putting in the ask. It will be allocated. We do not leave any county behind. One of the guiding principles of the climate response is that every place matters, every person matters and every local authority matters. Obviously, some, such as Dublin, will have much deeper...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: That was a decision by the CRU, from 1 October, in its review of network tariffs. As I said, that was an independent regulatory decision. Going back to the original decision in 2010, there may not have been regulated pricing on markets. However, that was a CRU decision and it applies from 1 October.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It relates to very large energy users, that is, very large industrial energy users, not households.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It was part of a number of complex CRU measures, including the public service obligation, PSO, going negative. There were elements where there was an increased cost on households and other elements where there was a reduction. There was a net rebalancing, which, if I remember the exact figure correctly, was a reduction of approximately €40. It was within that decision that the...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I am quite happy for the committee to do so. I think the CRU was in recently.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We are looking at that. To be honest, people did not expect Tarbert and Moneypoint - the third station this applies to is, if I recall, Aghada, which is an oil-fired generation unit in the ESB plant in Aghada in Cork - to be still running. They are running but within a relatively short period, we see the likes of Moneypoint switching away from coal, perhaps to fuel oil initially. One of...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: Corrib is a gas exploration and extraction facility, so it is different from power generation. The lifetime of the field is determined by how much gas is there. There was talk recently in the newspapers about there being potentially larger reserves than might originally have been expected. That is a matter for the company. That is not something we can determine. There is real potential...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It is a specific directorate. There is an independence at An Bord Pleanála, so line Ministers do not get directly involved. However, in response to Deputy Bruton, I said earlier it is probably on the planning side that we have the real constraint in our system and that is the biggest constraint in developing offshore renewable energy, and indeed a range of other projects. Recognising...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: That is only my Department's contribution. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is making a further contribution. My understanding in budget discussions and elsewhere is that there is no restriction on the ability of An Bord Pleanála to draw down resources. The restriction is in getting the capable people with real skills. To be honest, one of the things we need...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2022 (Supplementary)
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (18 Oct 2022)

Eamon Ryan: Critically, EirGrid would have a key role in this. It is complicated by the fact that many times a data centre may have a certain grid connection but not use it at full capacity. EirGrid already has detailed working relationships with many large energy users. They have entered into co-operation. I hear EirGrid saying it has got a good response. It is getting a great deal of co-operation...