Results 27,501-27,520 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I do not have that information. This plan only came off the printing press on Monday, having received Government agreement to these initiatives, which we now need to move to implement.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: It is my understanding that is the direction of travel. I am not the Minister with responsibility for forestry. We have a commitment to double the rate of planting. There is a move, as I understand it, to have much more mixed planting. There is a recognition that new policy instruments will need to evolve. There will be stakeholder engagement to ascertain what those might involve. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: This is a plan to address our climate challenge. Separate work is being done on biodiversity. There are elements here where the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Minister, Deputy Madigan's Department, has made significant contributions directly connected to improving the carbon sequestration of wetlands or so on. This document does not purport to be everything that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: Which commission?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: That is its comment on that national energy and climate plan submitted last December. It is not its comment on-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: -----on the document we only published on Monday. We have not had a response to it. The Deputy raised the issue of community engagement by those who develop wind farms and are not proposing to sell energy under the RES. There will be new planning guidelines for the development of any such facilities and they will apply in such cases.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I hope I can put some of those concerns to rest. I see the process as iterative. If Oireachtas recommendations need to be developed, we will work with the committee to develop them where they can be shown to be cost-effective in a transition. It is important we choose to make the changes in the correct order, as we have taken great care to do. The only reason we were able to bring every...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: Yes, it is but it will be in five-year slices and Departments will know what tonnage they must abate in each period. Where it is identified that we are falling short and a cost falls on the Exchequer, the cost of purchasing credits will not appear in my budget but in the relevant line budget. Where the shortfall came from will be more visible to Deputy Sherlock and others who are looking at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: It is a mistake to pretend that there is an obligation to buy an electric tractor, stop burning turf or cut herd size. There are no such obligations in this plan. Those who are shocked or frightened should be reassured by that. Equally, however, we have to recognise that we are starting on a journey of change on which Ireland and the people whom the Deputy represents are extremely exposed....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I did not say that. I said there was no obligation to stop burning turf. Of course, carbon pricing-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: It is not a question of penalising them. People who are burning coal, turf or oil are creating environmental damage for which everyone in the globe must pay. By saying a price will be put on the damage that is done, we are following a long-established principle. People would understand this if the carbon being emitted was visible as a huge plume of smoke and we could see it. Let us...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I will be quick. I can see the point Deputy Martin Kenny is making about perverse hedge cutting. I will have to pass that on to people who are better equipped to address it. There will certainly be new sectors. Enterprise Ireland is tried and tested in helping start-up companies. It supports high-potential start-up companies and commercialisation of technology emerging from our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: It has to grow to scale. Enterprise Ireland companies have grown to scale. They start as high potential start-ups. Enterprise Ireland puts in its own capital and attracts venture capital. There is a very good model for developing technologies, for which I have been responsible, and I do not see anything better in any of the countries to which I go. Where a state decides to do it, it...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I will have to get the details from the Deputy and check out what the issue is around that particular site.

Climate Action Plan to Tackle Climate Breakdown: Statements (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I thank the House and, in particular, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action for the huge effort put into helping to develop this proposal. We are talking about massive change in our society. We have learned from other big changes we have managed to make in Ireland in recent years, such as the changes in our Constitution, that the first and most important element is to ensure...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Post Office Network (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I appreciate the fact that Deputy Fleming has raised the issue, which I know is of acute concern to many people. Last week in the Dáil, the Deputy may have heard somebody else raising the case of one of the other mail sorting centres. The Deputy is an experienced committee Chair and I have soldiered with him on some of them. He is very aware of the legal position, namely, that this is...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Post Office Network (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I can assure the Deputy I will arrange for a transcript of this debate to be passed on to An Post, as he requested. He has made an articulate case for Portlaoise. I know An Post is very conscious of the regional role it plays and of the importance it plays in regional development. This is a decision it will have make and it will do so on the basis of what is in the best interests of the...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Re-introduction of Grey Wolf (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: The remit of my Department and of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) as regards wildlife is confined to inland fisheries species. The Department and IFI have no remit in relation to the matter raised by the Deputy. The feasibility of reintroducing the grey wolf is a matter for consideration by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht. That...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Inland Fisheries Ireland (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 177 and 178 together. I am advised by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) that communication with the National Anglers Representative Association (NARA) is on-going. In addition, I am advised that, shortly after the establishment of the Fish Farm Working Group from across a range of disciplines within IFI, angling federations, including NARA, were invited to...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Exploration Licences (20 Jun 2019)

Richard Bruton: The two Lease Undertakings referenced in my letter of 8 May 2018 to the Ceann Comhairle are the Dunmore Lease Undertaking and the Helvick Lease Undertaking operated by Providence Resources PLC. The Lease Undertakings were issued on 1 March 2016 and are subject to the Licensing Terms for Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Development and Production 2007.