Results 16,761-16,780 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I do not have a timeframe here this morning but I will try to find that and liaise with the committee to give an update as soon as I have it. On rapid antigen testing, I have said right through this crisis that it has a role to play. We have been pushing regularly for antigen testing in a variety of areas, including travel. "Yes" is the answer. I expect in a variety of circumstances,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Our first requirement in the plan as set out is to introduce the digital Covid certificate. Included in that is vaccination status and whether a person has had the virus previously or a PCR test. That is what will apply from 19 July. That does not rule out us looking at antigen testing. I expect it to have an extensive role.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I am reluctant to speak on behalf of NPHET. It can do that well on its own.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I do have an opinion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: My opinion is we will be using antigen in a whole variety of occupations. It will not be used, to make it clear to Deputy Crowe, from 19 July. That will be PCR testing. That does not rule out the use of antigen testing for both travel and domestic arrangements in the future. To do that in travel, it would have to be tested. We will be working with the airlines and others, including...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The decision we made on Monday night was to give ourselves time to work out the application in this regard of a whole variety of solutions we are going to need to apply. I am not going to set out here what that approach should be. The Tánaiste is talking to the restaurant and hospitality sectors today. We need to do that. We need to do further analysis of the capability in terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: We should not rule out anything, Chairman.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Going back through the past year I have been in regular contact with Ryanair, Aer Lingus as well as NPHET, the Department of Health and the airports, all of which have an interest in this issue. There have been very collaborative arrangements. For our first PCR system, it was Dublin Airport which stood up to help provide the data centre to back that up. Similarly with Aer Lingus and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I will announce further details next week. The European Union gave countries up to eight weeks from 1 July to introduce a system. We picked 19 July for a variety of reasons but a primary reason was that I do not think any other health system in Europe has been subjected to the same cyberattack as we were, which in effect took out our IT systems for the past five or six weeks since the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I am slightly nervous because I have commented on that and I hope I have not distracted the committee from its core work, which is pre-legislative scrutiny. Road safety is also a significant issue. With no disrespect to Deputy Carey, I think my previous answers to Deputy Lowry and others encapsulate what I think on that issue. I am nervous about wandering too far from the contents of the Bill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: On the timing of the Bill, legislation is a slow process, as we all know. If we can get the Bill into the Oireachtas in early or mid-September and get it through both Houses, that process itself ordinarily takes a couple of months. We do not have to rush it. We should use Committee Stage wisely. The timeline we expect is that the President will sign the Bill before the end of the year....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I have been seen to cycle without a helmet but I increasingly do wear a helmet because I am fearful and want to protect my head, but I do not believe that we should make them mandatory, for a variety of reasons. Deputy O'Rourke raised the matter of Dublinbikes. Those hire bikes are being used increasingly widely. People using them do not wear helmets. We do not want to discourage that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Without wandering too far from the Bill, I will comment briefly on the Narrow Water bridge. Deputy Ó Murchú will be aware of the announcement yesterday that the project is to go to tender and that it is being shared by the shared island fund. The Taoiseach has a particular interest in this project. I met the Minister for Infrastructure, Nichola Mallon, on Monday. She also has a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Can I come back on what Deputy Matthews said?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: On his last point, we did not have a chance to discuss that earlier. He is right. The ability to avoid clogging up the courts is important. People would have to pay double in those circumstances, but that is better than a court hearing. It is also better for the courts. It is a welcome provision in the Bill. I also agree with Deputy Matthews on scramblers, e-bikes and automated vehicle...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: No, it will not be. They are not, as I said, akin to other road vehicles which require mandatory insurance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I attended the oral hearing on the widening of the M50 because I was interested in transport campaigning before I got involved in politics. In the past 30 or 40 years we have seen a significant improvement in road safety, as I said earlier. Much of that is down to legislative provisions on drink-driving, safety belts, airbags and a range of different measures which have helped us to reduce...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It does. The same rules of the road apply to pedestrians, to cyclists and to motorists. Those rules apply to everyone.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I will pass that question over to Mr. O'Leary to go into the details.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Minister for Transport (30 Jun 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I will again hand over to Mr. O'Leary to address this question because he has the widest knowledge of the existing legal arrangements.