Results 26,421-26,440 of 26,787 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Services (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport; however, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally and for the scheduling and timetabling of these services in...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy may be aware, land transport investment in the five cities is guided by the metropolitan area transport strategies which have been developed for each city. The strategies set out programmes of proposed transport investment in active travel, bus and rail for each metropolitan area over a 20-year period and they have been developed in line with the National Planning Framework...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services provided under public service obligation (PSO) contracts....

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Airport Policy (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: daa has statutory responsibility to operate, manage and develop Dublin and Cork Airports. As such, daa contract food and beverage operations to a number of vendors, and the vendors, as commercial companies, are responsible for setting the pricing of food and drink in the airports. These vendors are required to provide downtown pricing benchmarks for the prices charged in outlets at the airport.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned....

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy may be aware, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including, in consultation with Iarnród Éireann, the DART+ programme. The DART+ programme will double the capacity and triple the electrification of the existing DART network. The DART+ programme comprises five different...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned....

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is a matter for the local authority. ...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the planning, design and construction of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned....

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Energy Conservation (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department funds a number of grant schemes administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to support homeowners improve the energy efficiency of their buildings, and to promote the adoption of renewable energy systems. The part-funded schemes include:the National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme which is available for homeowners wishing to avail of the complete home energy...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department operates a devolved procurement function in which each business section is responsible for its own procurement. My Department also has a Procurement Officer, at Assistant Principal level, who provides advice and guidance to the business sections. The information sought in the Question in relation to each agency or public body under the auspices of my Department is an...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department records details of contracts over €5,000 on a digital register which is centrally operated and monitored. The information sought in the Question in relation to each agency or public body under the auspices of my Department is an operational matter for each of the State bodies concerned and, as such, it is not information held by my Department. It is suggested that the...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Fuel Poverty (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government has made a number of important commitments in respect of addressing the continued high cost of energy. The Programme for Government 2025 acknowledges the increased energy cost pressures on households and businesses and commits to bringing forward measures to help contain energy costs. Earlier this year, the Government approved an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Fuel Poverty (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Ireland’s Climate Action Plans recognise the need for the electricity sector to become more adaptable and flexible, in response to the ever-increasing volume of distributed renewable energy sources on the grid. To ensure reliability in such a distributed energy system, as well as to minimise the network upgrades (and costs for all) needed to accommodate peaks in demand, it will be...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Departmental Reports (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is committed to the open publication of all government information, which is central to trust, transparency and public engagement. My Department ensures that all relevant documents, reports, strategies and resources are made available to the public on our Departmental website on gov.ie, and has not engaged in “unpublishing” any documents, notwithstanding temporary...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Waste Management (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The study to explore the feasibility, potential benefits and risks associated with transitioning our waste collection system from its current competitive licensing system to a franchise tendering system commenced in early 2025. The aim of this comprehensive year-long feasibility study is to identify how we can best support the achievement of EU recycling targets. It is timely at this stage...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Renewable Energy Generation (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government approved the high-level design for the Micro-Generation Support Scheme (MSS) in December 2021, as a means of supporting 380MW of new micro-generation capacity by 2030 under the Climate Action Plan. As part of the approved MSS Final Scheme Design, the maximum grant levels for domestic applicants were set out for the period from 2022 to 2028. In 2022 and 2023, the maximum...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Thank you, Deputy, for your question. The performance of all public transport operators is monitored by the National Transport Authority (NTA), and the contractual arrangements put in place allow for financial penalties where performance does not meet the required standard, including services operated by Go-Ahead. Regarding your specific question about engagement with the NTA prior to...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Services (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport. The National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including the provision of bus stops/shelters nationally. There is a commitment under the Programme for Government to ensure that public transport...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Safety (24 Jun 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Irish Government’s road safety strategy 2021 to 2030 ‘Our Journey Towards Vision Zero’, as published by the Road Safety Authority, includes the primary aim of reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads in half by 2030 and to achieve ‘Vision Zero’, zero deaths or serious injuries, by 2050. To help achieve this aim the strategy...