Results 3,841-3,860 of 6,823 for speaker:Darren O'Rourke

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: With due respect, it does not feel like it is based on the roll-out and delivery. The Minister has heard me compliment the services that are being delivered but they are below the targets the NTA set last year. For example, the Kentstown route was to be delivered last year. It was not. It was delivered this year and is welcome. It is the same for other services and in respect of the...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: It does.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I can vouch for that. I know very many people who use the Navan bus service. I accept that point but I will also make the point that Connecting Ireland is also doing other things that speak to the issue of car dependency in rural areas that town services will not. With regard to transformational change in transport, this dependency is a particular challenge. Connecting Ireland has a...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: Is the Minister ambitious to see the scheme of fares reductions extended beyond the end of 2023? It is of interest to me that the NTA and so many were surprised by the response and uptake in public transport because my party and I had for some time advocated for a reduction in fares yet were consistently met with the argument that a reduction in fares would not necessarily see the type of...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: Where I see a funding fall-off is in subhead C3 of the national roads investment. Last year, between current and capital funding, it was €783.3 million and this year it is €678.2 million.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: On that point, it does not only apply to the Minister's Department. It applies to others as well, in terms of housing and the Minister's other brief in terms of energy infrastructure. Does the Minister see the proposals that are coming in terms of planning reform being about resources for the planning system or the approach of the planning system? Obviously, there is an important balance...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I thank the Chair.

Energy Costs and Windfall Taxes: Motion [Private Members] (15 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I welcome the motion and the specific proposals to introduce targeted price caps and a windfall tax, review the proposed revenues from non gas and electricity generators and leave the Energy Charter Treaty. Sinn Féin has advocated an energy price freeze for some months. It is welcome that the Social Democrats support that move. It would provide certainty and the maximum protection for...

Energy Costs and Windfall Taxes: Motion [Private Members] (15 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: It resisted it every single time. Stand over the record.

Energy Costs and Windfall Taxes: Motion [Private Members] (15 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: Every single time; look at what-----

Energy Costs and Windfall Taxes: Motion [Private Members] (15 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: -----the Government is saying about the Energy Charter Treaty. I will read the Minister's words back to him. He said if a decision is made for a co-ordinated exit of EU member states from the treaty, Ireland will support that position and withdraw. It is the same in respect of windfall taxes. While the Iberian countries of Spain and Portugal moved, the Government resisted that. Today,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Building Reform Regulations: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I will pick up on a couple of points. The Department indicated that, between 2013 and 2021, shallow retrofits had been carried out on 75,000 local authority houses by way of cavity wall and attic insulation. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, tells us a very significant number of the shallow retrofits carried out during that time could benefit from being revisited as the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Building Reform Regulations: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: Is there an efficiency to be gained from it? I am conscious that we have an acute workforce shortage and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Building Reform Regulations: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: Reading the note on Articles 27 and 28, I remembered conversations with environmental officers in various local authorities about how to avoid demolition. That is the right approach, but where demolition is happening, it seems that the licensing system is acting as a barrier in practical terms to the reuse of materials and is contributing to more construction waste ending up in landfill or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Building Reform Regulations: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: Is there an opportunity? It would be for the EPA to assess the consequences of the licensing system and various policies on where materials end up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Building Reform Regulations: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I thank Mr. Armstrong.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Building Reform Regulations: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: My next question relates to aggregation. Is the Department's targeting of clusters or individual homes in a local authority area for deep retrofitting arbitrary? Is it based on BER ratings, energy poverty or household incomes? How are homes identified and prioritised?

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: If the Tánaiste listens to the traffic reports every day he will know that there is significant congestion on the N2 between the Rath roundabout and Kilmoon Cross. Transport Infrastructure Ireland informed Meath County Council, and me through reply to a parliamentary question, this week that it is unable to approve progression of this scheme to phase 3 because of funding constraints....

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Trade Missions (14 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: 106. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if Enterprise Ireland plans to have a trade mission to the west coast of United States of America in the next three months. [6976/23]