Results 26,181-26,200 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Efficiency (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: An application by Dublin City Council to capture heat from the waste heat generated at the Dublin waste to energy plant and pipe it into homes and businesses in the Poolbeg, Ringsend and Docklands area of Dublin was successful in being approved for up to €20 million of support from the climate action fund. I understand up to 90MW of waste heat is produced at the Dublin waste...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Efficiency (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The climate action fund was an attempt to help bottom-up thinking to see what was possible. It is significant that two schemes which were successful were district heating schemes, the one in Dublin city with a figure of €20 million and the one in Tallaght in the area of South Dublin County Council with a figure of €4.5 million. It signals to me that there is potential in this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Efficiency (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: I agree. Ultimately, I must be conscious of the cost effectiveness of the different measures which must enter into the calculation. I think it is 50:50 in these cases, where the State is putting in half of the funds, while the other half is raised elsewhere. We must look at the cost effectiveness of this and any subsequent heating project. I presume this project had an edge because the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: Under the 2009 effort sharing decision which put in place binding annual emissions targets for each year between 2013 and 2020 for sectors outside the EU emissions trading system, Ireland must achieve reductions of 20% relative to 2005 levels of emissions. The actual trends show that under the influence of the economic crash, Irish emissions were below target ceilings in the years 2013...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy has raised a couple of points. He is absolutely right. The net figure was 17 million tonnes. That has been priced. We had credits already but we have also acquired credits. What we are going out into the market with now is not even 17 million tonnes' worth. The gap will get bigger in the future. The Deputy is right about commercial solar power. It is not solely about the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: I do not want any misunderstanding. To be clear, I am not taking responsibility for delivery across all Departments. I have been given the job of developing a plan. In this case it will be about holding other Departments to account. It will be as much the Taoiseach's responsibility as my own to oversee delivery. I cannot go to every Department and tell them what to do. The Deputy is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Climate Change Policy (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: As I indicated to Deputy Curran earlier, the position as of today is that, cumulatively, we will have missed our 2013 to 2020 targets by 5%. After the crash, we looked grand but once the recovery started, we began to go seriously off-track. The more worrying projection is that in 2020 we will be 95% off our targeted starting point. We will be 1% down on 2005 emissions; we were supposed to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Climate Change Policy (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: This is a tricky area. Teagasc has indicated that, potentially, there are 9 million tonnes in carbon reductions that could be achieve in agriculture. They have looked at better farming methods, sequestration through forestry and other methods, and biofuels. There is theoretical potential. It is about how we capture that potential. Deputy Neville is correct. The Irish beef sector is...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Cyber Security Policy (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Government fully recognises the critical importance of protecting the State against cyber security threats and has invested heavily in recent years in strengthening the State’s capacity in this area. The annual allocation for the National Cyber Security Centre in 2018 is €4m, including pay and other expenditure. Additional recruitment was undertaken in 2018 and is...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Implementation (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland - regardless of how remote or rural - has access to high speed broadband. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment across Ireland; and a State intervention in those areas, mostly rural areas, where commercial operators acting alone are unlikely to invest. Since December...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: Under the 2009 Effort Sharing Decision, which put in place binding annual emissions targets for each year between 2013 and 2020 for sectors outside the EU Emissions Trading System, Ireland must achieve reductions of 20% relative to 2005 levels of emissions. The actual trends show that under the influence of the economic crash Irish emissions were below target ceilings in the years 2013...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Change Adaptation Plans (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Local Authorities have been major players in the recent competition for support from the Climate Action Fund. Among the seven successful projects, two Local Authorities are the lead applicants and, in respect of another, 27 different Local Authorities are participating as project partners. Local Authorities have also been involved in a number of the 90 applicant projects which were not...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Implementation (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland - regardless of how remote or rural - has access to high speed broadband. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment across Ireland; and a State intervention in those areas, mostly rural areas, where commercial operators acting alone are unlikely to invest. Since December...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: North-South Interconnector (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Generation Capacity Statement 2018 covers both Northern Ireland and Ireland, and is produced jointly between the System Operator for Northern Ireland and EirGrid. This is in line with their regulatory requirements to publish forecast information about the power system including an assessment of the balance between supply and demand. The Generation Capacity Statement is updated on an...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Implementation (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The NBP aims to provide access to high speed broadband to all premises, including those in the areas referenced by the Deputy. My Department’s High Speed Broadband Map, available at , shows those areas of Ireland targeted by commercial operators to provide high speed broadband services and the areas that will be included in the State Intervention Area under the National Broadband...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Staff Data (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: My Department currently has a total of 69 staff assigned to climate and energy policy functions, across eight separate divisions. This staff complement has significant experience in developing and implementing climate and energy policy at international, EU, national, regional and local levels. In addition to its own staff, the Department also has access to scientific and technical...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Efficiency (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: I have met with the CEO and Chair of SEAI where we discussed a range of issues. I have not met with the Tipperary Energy Agency. The Deep Retrofit Pilot Programme is funded by my Department and operated by the SEAI. It is investigating how to create a scalable offering for the deep retrofit of Ireland’s homes, while building consumer demand and contractor capacity. Funding up to 50%...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: The procurement process to appoint a bidder for the State intervention network is now at the final stage, with my Department concluding its assessment of the final tender submission received from the bidder on 18 September 2018. While details of the final tender submission are confidential to the procurement process, I understand from public statements by the bidder that Nokia has...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Illegal Dumping (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: In line with the commitments set out in A Resource Opportunity - Waste Management Policy in Ireland, published in 2012, and in the interest of encouraging further waste prevention and greater recycling, flat-rate fees for kerbside household waste collection were phased out over the period autumn 2017 to autumn 2018. My Department established a Household Waste Collection Price Monitoring Group...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Implementation (18 Dec 2018)

Richard Bruton: I have not met with representatives of eir since my appointment. Ongoing monitoring and oversight of the deployment commitments by eir are regularly monitored by my Department. Under the Commitment Agreement eir is in the process of passing 300,000 predominantly rural homes with high speed broadband. According to data for Q3 2018 submitted by eir to my Department, the company has passed...