Results 12,181-12,200 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Consultancy Contracts Data (28 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: The table following outlines details of the top twenty consulting firms engaged by my Department during the period January 2012 – December 2013. Given the technical complexity of the sectors which my Department oversees and, in some instances regulates, there is a requirement to procure services to address specific issues as they arise. In procuring these services my Departments...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (29 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: There are no capital building projects currently underway or planned for 2014 under the remit of my Department which would be subject to the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2013.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Services Provision (29 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: The Government’s National Broadband Plan, which I published in August 2012, aims to radically change the broadband landscape in Ireland by ensuring that high speed broadband is available to all citizens and businesses, including those in County Kilkenny. This will be achieved by providing: - a policy and regulatory framework that assists in accelerating and incentivising commercial...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Electricity Transmission Network (29 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: EirGrid’s Grid25 Programme is a Government endorsed strategy to develop the transmission network to ensure nationwide safe, secure and affordable electricity supply supporting economic growth, renewable and sustainable energy. It represents the most important investment in Ireland’s transmission system for several generations and will position our energy system for decades to...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Services Provision (29 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: The broadband service under National Broadband Scheme (NBS) is a basic, affordable, scalable product in keeping with EU State Aid clearance for the Scheme in September 2007. Under the terms of the contract with Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd (trading as “3”), which is overseen by my Department, the NBS mobile wireless service currently offers minimum download and upload speeds of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 3 together. EirGrid’s Grid25 national transmission grid development programme is vital for future socio-economic progress in Ireland, for regional development throughout Ireland, and to ensure that current and future generations of consumers have access to more reliable, sustainable and affordable energy. Grid25 represents an investment in the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I shall respond to the second question first. There is no question of the health issue not being included in the panel. Rather it is a matter that relates to the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Responsibility for any concerns in respect of electromagnetic fields or non-ionising radiation is a matter for him also. As I said in my formal...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I entirely accept - as I have on dozens of occasions - that it is imperative that EirGrid is sensitive to the concerns raised by community groups and citizens. I have gone to great pains to ensure that the views and concerns, not just of groups that I have met but citizens generally, are taken into account and assessed in terms of how EirGrid and the Government ought to respond. I also...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I most emphatically did not refer to the people expressing concerns as being in the category to which Deputy Higgins refers when I said there are some people who are never happy unless they are unhappy. I was referring to Deputy Higgins and people who think like him who dismiss out of hand the fact a measure has been born out of the public consultation process and is designed to respond to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: In January of 2013, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Mr. Edward Davey MP, and I signed a memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation. That memorandum sent a strong signal of our shared interest in developing the opportunity to export green energy from Ireland to Britain and will result in completion of consideration of how Irish renewable energy resources,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: It certainly cannot be the case that, on the one hand, we are building out and improving the grid, which has no relationship to the wind export project about which people are complaining, and on the other hand that the transmission system for the wind export project can never be connected to the Irish grid. It is one or the other. I say again, for the umpteenth time, that if there is not an...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: It is an entirely separate technology. The technology that will connect the wind export project to the British grid, if it goes ahead, is a sub-sea cable and an underground cable to wherever the electricity is being generated.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: We do not need it ourselves. If there was a question of domestic need, that would come first. We have capacity to generate more than what we need domestically. If we can find a market in which to sell the excess, why should we not open a new trade sector in green energy? The process has not been under way for three years. I said in my formal reply that the memorandum was signed last...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation Issues (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: EirGrid is the transmission system operator, TSO, for the electricity transmission system in Ireland. The functions of the TSO are set out in SI 445 of 2000 and include the operation of a safe, secure, reliable, economical and efficient electricity transmission system with a view to ensuring that all reasonable demands for electricity are met, having due regard for the environment. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation Issues (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: The Deputy raised a very complex, technical question that I have struggled with for quite some time in an effort to understand the matter. It essentially concerns the capacity of the system to accommodate renewables generally, and wind energy in particular. The transmission system operator, EirGrid, is very highly regarded not only in Ireland, but also internationally in terms of its...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation Issues (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: It is not a question of technical capacity only. Undergrounding is possible but it is much more expensive. Deputy Colreavy's party leader said yesterday that the norm internationally is to put cables underground. The international norm is that 1.5% of transmission cables are underground, including in economies that are far wealthier than ours. While the issue is cost, there also can be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: In the first instance, it is important to state the paper published by the European Union last week does not in any way scale back on the 2020 targets. The 2020 targets remain extant across Europe and Ireland is still required to meet its target of 40% of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020. Anything the European Union announced last week in respect of events post 2020 does...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: One of these days, Deputy Colreavy must tell me where he stands on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. If we are to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and if we are to move towards decarbonisation of the electricity system, we must then reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and must use more renewable sources. I repeat for the tenth time this morning, that the improvement to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I agree entirely with Deputy Colreavy that if we are to open a new traded sector in green energy, the benefit must redound to the Irish nation. I could not agree more and that is what I have been explaining since I got on my feet this morning. This is the reason painstaking attention must be devoted to negotiating an intergovernmental agreement because unless there is benefit to Ireland,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: -----on subjects on which they do not bother to inform themselves. They do not have to take any responsibility. If one does have to take responsibility for something it has to be done patiently and with great care. Deputy Colreavy knows that I cannot stop anybody buying land from anybody else in Ireland. My fellow county man attempted to collectivise the land in the eighteenth century....