Results 14,861-14,880 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I would not rule out that option, but what we are doing with the national broadband plan, and what Eir and SIRO are also doing with their respective networks, in putting fibre or equivalent connections into homes will be the winning technology in the years to come. Fibre technology has advantages over satellite which means it will be the solution in the end.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I apologise for not having addressed those issues for the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: An Post has had a long relationship with AIB in providing some over-the-counter services and it now has a partnership with Bank of Ireland. Reiterating what I said to Deputy Crowe earlier, a good example of what An Post has done is its work with Scottish and Southern Energy, SSE, Airtricity. The advertisements can be seen on television for the wraparound service to improve homes. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It is not just community banking in terms of the post office networks. We must be careful on the banking side. It is an industry in flux. We have stopped using cash because of Covid-19. How many here have a Revolut card? How many of their relations are being queried on that? However, that is a separate issue. I kid you not, the questions my family have been asked on that are shocking....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: We need to see a variety of different services. Someone said these are centres of local and national government. Another example is getting a new driver licence, which is not easy at present. It is a big palaver in which one has to get an appointment in a relatively distant location. Could we deliver that kind of service where a physical presence is needed? It cannot be done online. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The Government will not let that occur. It is too strategically important.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I have been distracted from the other questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: We have invested massively in our road network over the last 30 years. The first priority should be considering safety issues or pinch points, as the Deputy said. A large number of small bypasses, such as the centre of our-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I can think of several examples. Town centres are first. Rather than a bypass that costs €0.25 billion which is 25 km long, a 5 km bypass could achieve the objective of solving our traffic problems, improving traffic safety and, critically, reviving the town. I would like to move towards the reprioritisation of town bypasses in the national development plan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It will go to Cabinet in the next two or three weeks before it goes to public consultation. It will go out to public consultation by the end of March. It is part of a long process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It will go to Cabinet before and after. I read the discussions with my Secretary General on this. The national investment framework for transport in Ireland, NIFTI, started in 2017 long before this Government come in. It is important and appropriate is because the previous plan was done prior to the national planning framework. The reason this started in 2017 was to update our thinking-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It will be formally approved but that does not stop the concept, or the thinking, behind it. The focus on the national planning framework in the meantime-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The timing should be analogous. It should be the same time. It depends on how quickly the interview is done-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The Minister, Deputy McGrath, will have to decide on the timing of the national development plan, NDP. I cannot shoehorn it in. I am nervous of the implication that the national investment framework for transport in Ireland, NIFTI, provides a computerised perfect solution where x, y or z project should be "Yes" or "No" and it comes out as definitive. It does not. It is part of an ongoing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It will go back to Government.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It will happen within a number of weeks. I do not want us to constrain ourselves because, as I said, we want to get it right. That is our timeframe.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: TII is examining rail and road options. There are a variety of options. There is likely to be a further paring down of options within the next quarter. TII will outline some further options and analysis later this year. The project is at a relatively early stage. On rail investment in Limerick, some of the thinking behind NIFTI comes into this. It outlines where we should optimise the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The Deputy is absolutely right about the importance of Tipperary town getting relief from the traffic running through Main Street. It is plagued by very heavy levels of freight traffic. As the Deputy knows, traffic from large industrial areas in Shannon and Galway heading towards Rosslare or the Port of Waterford all run through the likes of Tipperary town. That leads to huge problems,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The first coach service in this country was run by Bianconi from Clonmel to Limerick, I understand. He took a strange route, through the caravanserai in Tipperary via Tipperary town en route to Limerick. No one knows why he took that route; he should have gone via Bansha. My family was involved in looking after the horses at the first stopping post, so my family history includes the Cahir...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Consultation on the National Development Plan (Resumed): Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and for Transport (9 Mar 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Deputy Matthews is right; we have to start taking climate change far more seriously. The scale of our ambition and the level of change planned are beyond compare. The existing climate action plan includes a very ambitious switch towards electric vehicles and the use of biofuels including biodiesel. Every country in Europe is now doing this but we are faced with a challenge to go much...