Results 8,141-8,160 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Other Questions: Renewable Energy Projects (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: I hope to publish the quadrilateral report shortly. I know that "shortly" is a term of art in the Chamber.

Other Questions: Renewable Energy Projects (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: By "shortly" I mean in a short period of weeks.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Wind Energy Guidelines (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: Work is being advanced by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, in conjunction with my Department and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, on the review of the 2006 Wind Energy Guidelines. It is proposed to update certain sections of the existing guidelines. There will also be a number of technical appendices developed to assist planning authorities in...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Postal Services (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: In recognition of the challenges facing the post office network, I established the Post Office Network Business Development Group in January this year to explore potential commercial opportunities for post offices. The Terms of Reference for the Group are to: - examine the potential from existing and new Government and commercial business that could be transacted through the post office...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Service Provision (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Service Expenditure (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The proposed State intervention under the National Broadband Plan represents a very significant capital investment project for the State. I have undertaken to complete a detailed intervention strategy that will be submitted to Government in the middle of this year. Costs associated with the Government’s intervention are an important part of the detailed work that is being undertaken to...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Alternative Energy Projects (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The WestWave project is a collaborative ocean energy project led by the ESB with the objective of accelerating the development of the ocean energy sector in Ireland. ESB is working with a number of wave energy project developers to realise this 5MW project off the coast of Clare, and the details in regard to the developers, the procurement process and specific technologies involved are...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Postal Services (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: Postal services play an important communications role, serving the needs of domestic and business customers alike. However, the postal sector is undergoing systemic change with migration towards electronic communications resulting in significant core mail volume declines. It is Government policy that An Post remains a strong and viable company, in a position to provide a high quality...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Service Provision (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Hydraulic Fracturing (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: As has been outlined to this House on a number of occasions, no decision will be made on any application proposing the use of hydraulic fracturing, as part of an unconventional gas exploration or extraction project, until there has been time to consider the outcome of a major research programme, directed at examining the potential environmental and human health impacts of hydraulic...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Mobile Telephony Services Provision (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: I refer the Deputy to Question No. 9 on today's Order Paper.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Service Provision (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The National Broadband Plan will deal conclusively with Ireland's connectivity challenge so that current and future generations will have a guaranteed access to high quality, high speed broadband, provided by commercial operators or through the proposed State intervention. The intervention network we wish to see built will be scalable and capable of meeting future anticipated traffic growth....

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Energy Production (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: Both I and Government colleagues have consistently been supportive of the proposal by Shannon LNG to construct a LNG terminal near Ballylongford, County Kerry. The LNG facility would provide additional security of supply to Ireland in that it would bring diversity to Ireland's supply sources and would bring connectivity for the first time to the global LNG market. Such a facility would be a...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Electricity Transmission Network (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: In January 2014, an Independent Expert Panel (IEP) was established to oversee the integrity of the process being undertaken by EirGrid to report on comprehensive, route-specific studies of overhead and underground options for both the Grid Link (GL) and Grid West (GW) projects. While the North South Transmission Line project (N/S) is outside the IEP's Terms of Reference, the IEP did agree, on...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Service Provision (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Electricity Transmission Network (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: On 27 March 2015 Eirgrid published, for public comment, a discussion paper on Ireland's grid development strategy - "Your Grid, Your Views, Your Tomorrow.". The paper underlines EirGrid’s renewed efforts to engage with stakeholders and citizens with a view to encouraging greater public participation in the organisation’s decision making. Eirgrid are seeking public comments on...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Hydraulic Fracturing (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: I would like to clarify in the first instance that the multi-agency trans-boundary programme of research on the potential impacts on the environment and human health from Unconventional Gas Exploration & Extraction projects/operations has been commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Programme is managed by the EPA and co-funded by the EPA, my Department and the...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Renewable Energy Generation Targets (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020, to be achieved through 40% renewables in electricity, 12% in heat and 10% in transport. In 2013, 7.8% of Ireland’s overall energy requirement was met by renewable energy with 5.7% of heat demand being met from renewable sources. It is...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Renewable Energy Generation Targets (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: One of the central themes in the Green Paper on Energy Policy, published in May 2014, is citizen empowerment. Since its publication my Department undertook a public consultation process which included: (i) analysis of over 1200 written submissions and (ii) a series of stakeholder seminars on the various priority areas in the Green Paper. The seminars covered various topics including...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (28 Apr 2015)

Alex White: The recent appointments to the Compliance Committee, a statutory Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, were made by the Government in accordance with Section 8 of the Broadcasting Act 2009. The appointment of members to the Compliance Committee does not come within the new arrangements on Appointments to State Boards.