Results 2,581-2,600 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I am pleased to address the House on the Second Stage of the Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023. As Deputies and Senators are aware, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications is the Minister with responsibility for gas policy and all legislation relating to gas and energy policy. The European natural gas directive, Directive 2009/73/EC on common rules of the internal markets in...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Senators for their contributions. As Senators are aware, this Bill has been introduced to reorganise Ervia. Ervia was a holding company that owned Irish Water, and it also owned Gas Networks Ireland.Irish Water has been spun out and is now an independent company. We are now left with a structure where there is simply a company called Ervia that owns Gas Networks Ireland which...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Senator. I am interested to hear her proposal because I did not know what it was grounded on when I looked at it. I will consider it more now. The Senator said she is worried there will be an expectation that profit should be the sole motive of Gas Networks Ireland and that would be brought about because the Minister for Finance is concerned with money. I did not foresee the...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: To confirm, are we debating amendment No. 2 at the same time as No. 1?

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: On amendment No. 1, it is not the case that Gas Networks Ireland would be legally allowed to focus solely on profit. It is subject to the climate Act. It is a named body so it must achieve the objectives set out in that Act, including the reduction in emissions and so on. It cannot solely focus on money. Under the new EU gas package, there is a new directive to be implemented and, as a...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I can say I am very unlikely to be able to get copies of letters of expectation for the Senator or to publish them. The code of practice for the governance of State bodies provides, in the case of commercial State bodies, for a shareholder letter of expectation that outlines the terms of the relationship with the parent Department. The shareholder letter of expectation contains commercially...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I will request that information. I will see whether I can find out from the CRU or my Department how many data centres are seeking direct connection to the gas grid. It is a fair question. The approval I have from the Government for this legislation is simply for the integration of the current activities of Ervia into GNI. It does not provide for the board to engage in any new function or...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: It is legally required to be consistent.

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I appreciate Senator Boylan's raising of this issue and acknowledge that her amendment is an attempt to do something constructive. Neither I nor the Government wants data centres connecting directly to the gas grid. Clearly, the gas grid is almost pure fossil fuel at the moment, with only very small amounts of biomethane on it and we do not want data centres connecting directly to it....

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: One of the main things I need to achieve with any legislation we pass is make sure it is legal and not challengeable. It is important that anything we do is non-discriminatory. If we tell Gas Networks Ireland that it cannot connect one customer but can connect another then the customer who was refused connection can legally challenge that. We have to decide what the connection policy for...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Senator Boylan asked what the difference is between putting in a moratorium on electricity connections for data centres and on gas connections for data centres. There is probably no difference but we do not have a moratorium on data centres being connected. It has become much harder and possibly nobody else is connecting at the moment but there is no national policy of a moratorium on data...

Seanad: Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: It is much harder now to connect a data centre to the grid. I do not know if anybody has managed in the recent period of time to achieve a new data centre connection. There are a lot of new rules to do with asking data centres to be outside of Dublin and making sure they have sufficient backup and are entirely powered by renewable energy. In other words, rather than an outright moratorium,...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Schemes (28 Feb 2024)

Ossian Smyth: As stated in my response to Parliamentary Question No. 158 of 13 February 2024, the tethered cap requirement is coming into effect across the EU on 3rd July 2024 and, from that date, only plastic beverage containers where the cap/lid remains firmly attached to the product during use can be placed on the market. The tethered cap requirement was introduced through the Single Use Plastics...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (5 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: In December 2022, my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets, including that:all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, anddigital connectivity will be...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Recycling Policy (5 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: A national Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) has been introduced to encourage more people to recycle plastic bottles and cans and to deliver on our ambitious EU targets for the recycling of those products. Under the DRS Regulations, retailers are required to charge consumers a deposit for every drink sold, to take-back empty containers (unless displaying a take-back exemption) and to refund the...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Recycling Policy (5 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy (WAPCE) includes several measures to tackle packaging waste, a number of which have already been delivered, including the ending of self-compliance for packaging producers, the introduction of deposit and return scheme, and the introduction of eco-modulation and net necessary cost in Extended Producer Responsibility scheme producer fees. Since...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Infrastructure (5 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: In December 2022, my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets, including that:all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, anddigital connectivity will be...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Seirbhísí Leathanbhanda (5 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: In December 2022, my Department published Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy which supports the ambition outlined in the National Digital Strategy and sets out a number of ambitious targets, including that: all Irish households and businesses will be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028 all populated areas will be covered by 5G no later than 2030, and digital connectivity...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Recycling Policy (7 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Formal monitoring and reporting arrangements are in place to ensure that regular reports, both financial and performance, are received from Re-Turn, the scheme operator for Ireland's Deposit Return Scheme, DRS. DRS is a national infrastructure project which operates primarily on a return-to-retail model. Under the DRS regulations, retailers are required to charge customers a deposit for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Recycling Policy (7 Mar 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Those are all very reasonable questions. We are in the changeover period for this scheme. The changeover period is four months long. The reason there is a changeover period is so that the old stock on the shelves of the supermarkets can be sold off and at the same time the new stock which has the logos and the new bar codes is coming in. We could not change over overnight because that...