Results 9,461-9,480 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Business of Joint Committee (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: -----including us and opening up this process. It must have those documents because it cannot be aiming to have a plan by Christmas yet have nothing here on 3 October.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Business of Joint Committee (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: We must also ask for a copy of the report on the update of the Project Ireland 2040 from the high-level senior officials group that the Secretary General said he would see if he could provide. He said that they would try to present that material to us as well. We have an opportunity to open up this process in a healthy way. Recent Supreme Court or High Court decisions around access to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Business of Joint Committee (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport should supply us with the material in advance of our meeting on Thursday.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Business of Joint Committee (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: If the Department does not have anything then that is a story in its own right. If it has no plan or proposals, our first question is why.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly (Resumed): Professor Peter Stott (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I thank Professor Stott for a fascinating presentation. Sometimes we hear in policy discussions on this issue the argument - maybe this is not the professor's science area because he is connected with the IPCC reports - that we might not have to concentrate on methane gas emissions. Due to their short lifecycle, they are not as significant as the CO2 lifecycle, which is much longer. Does...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly (Resumed): Professor Peter Stott (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Methane should not get a pass.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly (Resumed): Professor Peter Stott (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Some people argue it should.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I agree with Deputies Dooley and Stanley. Ireland has lost large companies, one after the other, which had decades of experience in putting wires up in the country. The Minister says it is competitive dialogue but there are no competitors. The remaining players have no experience when compared with the ESB, Vodafone, John Laing Group and so on. We are in trouble on this. What is the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: What is the role of Enet?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Enet has a great deal of experience in the context of putting in ducting and installing hundreds of metropolitan area networks. Why did it pull out?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: It is not part of the consortium.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I appreciate that. I had to go to the Dáil for Questions to the Taoiseach and am glad to come back in on this. I have a few questions about energy. How is the €500 million climate fund being managed? What are the timelines for spending it? How does it fit into the budget process? There is a risk that in response to just about everything the Minister asks for, the Minister...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: The committee has been informed that our new building standards still provide for fossil fuel heating systems and our new school building standards preclude renewable heating systems and insist on fossil fuel. In a country that must deep retrofit everything, permitting fossil fuel heating seems like madness. If it involves other Ministers such as the Minister for Education and Skills, could...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Minister of State for his opening statement. With regard to petroleum exploration, the briefing document on outputs and measures of success in the Department references that the number of wells drilled this summer was zero. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Given we opened up all our licence blocs a number of years and provided major incentives to encourage seismic activity, data sharing and so on and given also that the cost of oil is, again, $60 to $70 a barrel, how many wells are expected to be drilled next year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: My concern is that we are putting all this effort and resources into an industry which we should allow to die because it is the greatest threat to our future in terms of pollution. Exploration of these wells costs approximately €100 million a pop, that being the cost of the Dunquin field a number of years ago. There is no investment by the Department in offshore wind in the same...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I agree that the spend in this area is small. Consideration should be given to moving that spend and the attention of our engineers and so on to the licensing of offshore wind, marine engineering and the international licensing and regulatory environment. These skills could be put to good use in offshore development. We are regularly hearing at the Joint Committee on Climate Action...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I agree there is investment but the research on wind and tidal energy is very much long term and we will not know the outcome for 20 or 30 years. It is a long shot but worth doing. The State needs to invest in licensing, planning and strategic environmental assessment, and seabed and other surveys for offshore wind energy, which is not a 20-year bed or a five-year bed. This is happening on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Will the Minister of State confirm that no new licences will issue in the foreseeable future?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2018: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (2 Oct 2018)

Eamon Ryan: There will be nothing other than the continuation of existing licences.