Results 24,701-24,720 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Chair and committee members for the invitation to discuss my Department’s proposed decarbonisation pathway for the transport sector, as we have set out in the Climate Action Plan 2023, CAP23. I am joined today by a number of my officials, including Mr. Naoise Grisewood, climate engagement and governance division; Ms Aoife O’Grady, Zero Emissions Vehicles Ireland,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I thank Deputy Bruton. This is, as I said, going to be the most challenging. Part of the reason it is challenging is because our population is increasing, the economy is increasing and transport takes time. We have baked in planning and transport models which are not easily changed. It takes a long time. In the first of the carbon budgets, we are on track to meet our first target, but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I agree absolutely with Deputy Bruton. The delivery of our Bus Connects project is painfully slow. That speaks to a wider problem we have in our planning system, and a need to accelerate our delivery of infrastructure across a whole range of different areas. Bus Connects in Dublin - and I know it is being rolled out in various cities - had a very difficult birth, where there was a lot of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: Centralisation is very much the idea. The Deputy asked about the numbers but we do not have the final details yet. However, there could and should be up to perhaps 200 mobility hubs. This would give great flexibility in terms of vehicles and the ability to involve various operators. We are talking about scale. To achieve this, the likes of the NTA must work with the local authorities to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: There is a lot of information provided on grams per kilometre. As I understand it, the laden weight of a vehicle and other such information is available. The key approach in the first instance is putting a price on it. The owners of larger, very expensive vehicles, in particular, do not get to avail of EV grants and the VRT reductions. We are reviewing, as part of the process of changing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: If the Deputy gives me a second, I will get it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I can give the Deputy the figures for budget 2023. The matter is complicated by the fact that much of the funding and responsibility has been transferred from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to the Department of Transport in the past two to three years. The funding in 2021 might have been the overall funding because there would have been a variety of mechanisms...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: Over the years, many of those supports were to start and stimulate an industry. However, I tend to agree with the Deputy and that is why I changed the rules so the buyers of vehicles worth €60,000 and more would not get grants. These cars are very expensive, so-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: That is why changes are being made continually. As signalled in budget 2023 and announced yesterday, it is not a matter of having a cliff edge but of switching gradually. I am referring to a slightly lower grant but one that is still very significant. A slight reduction gives a signal. It will take time to achieve what we desire but we need to meet our targets. It is a case of switching...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: The first response in this regard is to start providing rural areas with public transport. We are already doing this. We have introduced about 70 new bus routes in rural areas in the last year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: We are only warming up on rural links and the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan. What is being seen is that the increase in public transport numbers in rural areas is way ahead of anywhere else. There has been a major increase. Leaving that point aside, the Deputy is right in that rural areas are the areas in which EVs will be of most benefit and more easily deployed because we will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: The grant scheme we introduced some months ago for rural sports clubs has had a great response. Right across the country, therefore, people are picking up on this. The Deputy is right that EVs are typically more expensive. They are coming down in price. There are conflictual aspects to this. The war in Ukraine has driven up the price of lithium, rare earth and other materials. There...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: We will continue to look at this, but I am concerned nervous that once we start going down the path of grants based on geography, it would be possible to buy a car in one place and send it to another. My brother down in Cork could buy it, I could then buy it and bring it up here. We could have all sorts of distortions that could start to create difficulties. Where we do need to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: Not everyone in Dublin is rich.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: They are not grant-aided. We changed the rules.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I was not aware of that, but my initial response is that the more transparent we are with information, the better. I will follow up and try to find out what the issue is but my instinct suggests there is no reason not to share the data, especially if we did so in the past.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: No, not to my knowledge.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: As it happens, the Government yesterday agreed on a strategy regarding the public service and Departments, and we have a similar strategy with regard to State agencies. I am very frank and forthright with various State agencies and other bodies that they need to be part of the change, including our transport companies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: I do not disagree, but the outline of the strategy is to avoid the use of vehicles as much as we can, although it is not against people driving. Most of us drive and it is not intended to shame and blame people, but we need a 25% reduction in daily car journeys to meet our targets but also to reduce congestion as well some of the other externalities in health and the use of other resources,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Mar 2023)

Eamon Ryan: That is very significant. As for the reason for that, there may be a knock-on effect whereby people think that because other cars are big, they also need a bigger car to protect themselves, and there may be a circular effect in that regard on the size of cars. We need to design the transport system differently and, as the OECD maintains, we need to do it by design because we have been doing...