Results 9,801-9,820 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Policy and Incineration: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: In the presentation there is reference to the European Circular Economy document which I have in detail and which notes waste incineration as a possible technology. I read about giving up on incineration as a circular economy would lead us to recovering materials such that we would not have to burn our waste. Why, therefore, are we considering further expansion of capacity, with an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Policy and Incineration: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I do not have the paper in front of me, but I could give other quotes. They might imply that one could do as Mr. Collins says, but the clear indication is that it is not European policy. Does the EPA agree with my assessment of what the circular economy would bring? Surely in the long term there should be a reduction, rather than rapid expansion, of the need for incineration.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Policy and Incineration: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: How does the massive expansion of incineration fit in with the strategy the Minister, Deputy Bruton, set out yesterday when he indicated that we effectively wanted to move towards a zero emissions economy by 2050? How will we do it when we are burning all of this waste?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Policy and Incineration: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: As I understand it, the Cork incinerator project has been subject to a legal challenge. That is unsurprising as the planning process was bizarre, if we look at it from a distance. It was highly unusual. Is the EPA involved in the legal process. At what stage is it at?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Policy and Incineration: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Does it need to get through the judicial review process before going before the EPA for a licence?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I suppose I should state at the outset that I am a former Minister in the Department and ran - or was involved in, oversaw or whatever is the word for what the Minister does - a procurement process. That ended up with a single bidder, Three, which ended up winning the process. I am glad to say we delivered the project on time and to budget. I met the bidders at various stages throughout...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: How many meetings? It is hard to follow the trail because there were so many meetings and telephone conversations.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Was the dinner in February the one in the Merrion Hotel, or was that the one in March?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Where was the dinner in February?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: At the dinner in New York, there was an official, but not one tied to the national broadband plan process. At the meetings in Clare and in the Merrion Hotel, there was no official with the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: The private secretary or the-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: It is slightly different. That is an issue considering the hypersensitivity of the Department on this issue because the Moriarty tribunal concerned another procurement process related to it. I do not believe the Department would have allowed me to go to a dinner with a bidder on my own. That would have set so many alarm bells off that there would have been a red alert. Does Mr. Smyth get...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I would say they would be. From my experience of a similar situation, I believe it is hard for the public to believe the position on the dinner in March, in the Merrion Hotel, where we are told there was no discussion of the matter in question. It was mainly a discussion on the use of The Box in Trinity College Dublin and ALTV to train Syrian refugees. While there is a memo for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: What I am saying is that the 158 Deputies did speculate. The result of the speculation was that it is more than likely, unfortunately, that there was a discussion on the national broadband plan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Review of Procurement Process for National Broadband Plan: Discussion (6 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: Mr. Smyth is referring to the line I read out at the very start on there being no formal need for these meetings.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Health Budget and Expenditure Management: Discussion (11 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: I very much appreciate the presentation. To set it in a slightly longer context - I made this point earlier in our discussion on another issue - if we take a 15 to 20-year perspective, the health budget in 2000, including both private and public health spend, was about €6.4 billion. It is hard to believe the scale of the jump but it had increased in 2007 to €15.7 billion. In...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Health Budget and Expenditure Management: Discussion (11 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: That is very true. I was looking briefly at the statistics in terms of a drawing a comparison on spending per capitabetween Ireland and the OECD. Spending per capitais the best way to draw comparisons because spending as a percentage of GDP is a distorted figure because of the nature of Ireland's GDP. When one looks at spending per capita, my understanding is that we are one third above...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Health Budget and Expenditure Management: Discussion (11 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: That is still very high up in the rankings.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Health Budget and Expenditure Management: Discussion (11 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: This might assist the policy makers because if, as Mr. Desmond states, we have the fifth highest spend in Europe, which is a very high level of spending per capita, given the wealth of other member states and if it is in the teeth of an environment where we have very low numbers of doctors, where one would have expected that we would have the fifth highest number of doctors. While Mr....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Health Budget and Expenditure Management: Discussion (11 Dec 2018)

Eamon Ryan: One would expect that the reaction to that would be a significant increase in the capital expenditure but that is not where the spending in the Revised Estimate has been, by and large. Mr. Desmond mentioned the State claims, demographics and so. If we needed to introduce a Supplementary Estimate because we were increasing our capital expenditure to address some of what are undoubted...