Results 11,061-11,080 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Unfortunately, since about mid-2009, the price of fossil fuels has continued to rise in the international marketplace. We are 100% dependent on oil imports and 95% dependent on gas imports. In that sense, we are price takers. To that extent, we import fossil fuels and are, therefore, vulnerable. The Deputy will acknowledge that for the first time in a very long time the most recent Bord...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The Commission for Energy Regulation does a good and conscientious job. I met it two weeks ago to discuss the issue raised by the Deputy. The commission and I are examining whether there are measures not known heretofore that can be brought to bear. As the Deputy is aware, the regulator is required to promote efficient, orderly, fair and competitive markets; to facilitate investment; and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The 2009 renewable energy directive set Ireland a binding target where at least 16% of our energy requirements should come from renewable sources by 2020. The directive also requires all member states to achieve a minimum target of 10% renewable energy in the transport sector by 2020. In order to meet our overall 16% requirement, we aim to achieve 40% in the renewable electricity sector,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I think the Deputy is being unfair and contradictory. He cannot say that he sees no evidence of the plan while at the same time his party frequently complains to me about new planning applications for wind farms in different parts of the country. I do not think the Deputy can have it both ways. The 40% target for renewables is important in that it increases diversity and it uses an...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I agree with the Deputy and I am sure that he will agree with me that in the rush towards renewables one must have regard to economics. The refit subsidies are not without cost. In particular, refit 3 which relates to combined heat and power systems, biomass and so on is expensive, about which there is no doubt. I hope to publish a strategy on bioenergy by the end of the year, if not...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Schemes (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The national energy efficiency action plan and the programme for Government include a commitment to roll out a better energy financing - formerly known as pay-as-you-save - energy retrofit scheme for domestic buildings. The better energy financing, BEF, model proposes that the current suite of Exchequer funded grants for energy efficiency measures will be replaced by a new financing scheme...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Schemes (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: It will be out in quarter three for a reasonable period. I do not know the figure the Deputy would put on it and I am quite agreeable to agreeing something with her on it. The scheme was promised for 2014 and it will make 2014. I must have regard to the existing scheme. There is, for example, a six-month timeline and I would have to cut off that scheme now if I was to commit to 1 January....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Schemes (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I have been trying to do the St. John the Baptist role that Deputy Murphy sees for me. We have a scheme. It is a grant-based incentive scheme and we are trying to sell it. Sometimes Deputy Murphy deliberately portrays a pessimistic face to the world about the dreadful things that are wrong, but if she wishes to join forces in going out to sell this to the householders of Leixlip, I assure...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Broadcasting Sector Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: RTE is an independent national public service broadcaster whose remit and obligations are set out in section 114 of the Broadcasting Act 2009. RTE has a direct obligation under section 105 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 to ensure that its revenue is, at the earliest possible date, at least sufficient to meet all sums properly chargeable to its current account and to make suitable provisions...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Broadcasting Sector Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The record will show that RTE has led the way among the State corporations in grappling with the implications of the economic downturn and attempting to provide feasible solutions. One should bear in mind the reduction in the number of staff, for example. Three hundred and fifty staff have left voluntarily, including 270 in 2012 alone. In the past four years, the headcount has been reduced...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Broadcasting Sector Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: It must be very disappointing for senior management in RTE that, having engaged in the serious restructuring it has carried out in the last couple of years and having had pay reductions and redundancies before similar companies, first quarter revenue income from commercial advertising has fallen. In the discussions I have had with the director general and the chairman of the board I have...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The development and operation of wind farms in Ireland require planning permission from the relevant planning authority and, in the case of offshore wind farms, a foreshore lease from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. They also require an authorisation to construct or reconstruct a generating station and a licence to generate from the Commission for Energy...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I do not know where to start in answering the Deputy. I take him at face value when he says he is in favour of building up renewables capacity in the economy. In so far as that capacity is meeting domestic need, I assume it meets his approval, provided it complies with good building standards. With regard to developing an export trade in this area, I appeal to the Deputy to stop using...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I accept that there are serious questions and I can assure the Deputy that there is no question of our developing an export trade in this sector unless we are confident that our own targets will be met. I can assure the Deputy that is the case and I think I am correct in saying that technically the directive requires that we meet our domestic targets before we can engage in such export...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Absolutely, I know a bit about that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: No, I am not giving away our oil and gas. For the hundredth time since I got this job, can I point out to the Deputy that in the past four decades neither I nor any of my predecessors ever found any bloody oil to give away?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Energy Regulation (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: How can I give it away, if I do not have it? My car is leaking at the moment and I keep a pint of oil in the boot in case the red light comes on. That is all the oil that I am wasting or giving away. I have to find the oil first. We are working on that too. I know that out in Dalkey I will have the Deputy's full support should a big gusher come at him down the main street.

Other Questions: Hydraulic Fracturing Policy (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The current position in Ireland with respect to the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is that my Department has not approved any application for, nor licensed the use of, hydraulic fracturing in the Irish onshore. Notwithstanding this position, however, I understand there are genuine concerns about the potential environmental considerations which may be associated with such...

Other Questions: Hydraulic Fracturing Policy (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I accept what the Deputy has said, namely, that there are genuine concerns about the environmental and public health implications of the technology known as hydraulic fracturing. I accept that we have to get the science right and that any decision made in the future will have to be made on evidence-based conclusions. It is for that reason I have commissioned the EPA - I do not think anyone...

Other Questions: Hydraulic Fracturing Policy (11 Jun 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I have explained that any decisions down the line will have to be evidence based. I do not know how Deputy Colreavy can draw the conclusions he has drawn. I would say to Deputy Boyd Barrett that I have very limited time these days to watch horror movies.