Results 19,101-19,120 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Services (16 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport.  The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including BusConnects Cork.  Noting the NTA's responsibility in the matter, I have referred the Deputy's question to the NTA...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Traffic Management (16 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: As Minister for Transport I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to the matters outlined in the Deputy's question, while the National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of traffic management measures in the Greater Dublin Area, in conjunction with the relevant local authorities, including Kildare County Council. Noting...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Projects (16 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: As Minister for Transport I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to the matters outlined in the Deputy's question, while the National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of such projects and works in conjunction with the relevant local authorities, including Kildare County Council, to implement same. Noting the...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Ministerial Staff (16 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: Since my appointment as Minister for Transport, I have not availed of a Ministerial driver and so have not incurred any such costs. Minister of State Naughton has availed of two Ministerial Civilian drivers since July 2020. The salary costs of these two drivers collectively were €77,096 in 2021.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We are introducing targeted measures; that is exactly what we did last week. A 20% reduction in public transport fares is targeted and real and will affect people every day. It will be introduced at the end of April and that will make a real difference to people’s everyday lives and their cost of living. The Deputy is right that people are exposed to these high fossil fuel prices,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I have the greatest respect for Sinn Féin. We have worked together collectively over the years, so this robust argument is done out of respect. What I have to know is: what is Sinn Féin's position on this? It keeps changing. It says it would stop any increases in the carbon tax now. It will agree to the carbon tax increases that have occurred previously because it knows that is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: -----who pays most and who are most at risk, that €1.5 billion will be very important for that community. That is why I stand up for it. I still do not have a clear understanding of where the Deputy says the money would come from in a real way, if not in this way.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: As the Deputy said, NPHET is meeting today and it will issue a letter to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I look forward to seeing its advice. My view, which I am happy to share, is that we should start immediately by removing the requirement for schoolchildren to wear masks in school. It was introduced for good public health reasons, but there are also good reasons for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I ran out of time before I was able to answer that question. I agree with the Deputy that the transformation of public transport has to be for the whole country. We could introduce a new flexi-ticket within the urban Dublin area, for example, very quickly because we have the Leap card and the swipe-on, swipe-off on the Luas. The difficulty is that we do not have that with the longer...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I thank Deputy Grealish. He has been raising this issue privately and publicly consistently with me over the past two years. He has raised a very valid concern for the 54 families in a very difficult position. I absolutely understand and see the argument in the case he is making on their behalf. This is a controversial project that has been long delayed like many other transport projects...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It is not my intention to push through this scheme in this way. We have to follow the law that protects all our people in the long run. If we start ignoring orders of the High Court-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We do. We are engaged in a process whereby we are looking at how we reform the law. This is probably one of the most important projects we have to do now for the sake of everyone in the country. It takes a certain period of time. This process will not be concluded until the end of this year. Any new planning legislation would take time to go through the House before it would be law. In...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: Yes. We intend to introduce a circular economy Bill, which will have a whole range of provisions to help to reduce the amount of materials we are dumping or seeing going to waste. I fundamentally agree with Deputy Fitzmaurice. When I was originally a city councillor in Dublin, I remember the shock of realising that one third of our landfill then was demolition waste. It was often very...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It will not be one year, it will be quicker than that. A lot quicker. This Government has three years to run and I believe that it has the necessary plans: Housing For All, the climate plan and the national development plan. The Housing For All plan also commits exactly to the sort of measures that Deputy Fitzmaurice was talking about. Across all Departments we now have to focus on...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We need to spend about €12 billion per year to really tackle the problem. Some €4 billion of that will come from the State and €8 billion from elsewhere. My job and my role, and what I want to do, comes back to what I said about Dublin Port: do we need all of the land with the expectation that it would double the amount of traffic in the port? I would say "No". We...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I will give my personal view based on real experience in Dublin. In 2018, we came very close to drought in Dublin. There is undoubtedly a real issue with water supply in Dublin. I was in Shannon and Ennis last week and I also have long held the view that we need better balanced regional development. A lot of water use is industrial. People do not see it or notice it, but it is huge. If...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: One of the measures announced last week was a change to the rules on school transport. That applies more to rural than urban areas, but it was very much targeted at the parents of young children. There are also changes in prescription charges. In addition, the many parents who cannot afford a car will benefit most from a cut in the cost of public transport. It is very expensive to pay for...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: We clearly recognise that we have an issue with data centres. We cannot just have an open door whereby every new data centre that wants to get onto the grid is connected. If we did that, we would blow our climate budget and so on. We have introduced much-needed new arrangements. A data centre that wants to connect to the grid has to be part of solving the problem we have with managing the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I look forward to that meeting. About 25 people sought a meeting. It will be tricky to arrange everyone's diaries but I will happily do whatever I can to facilitate it.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (17 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I met the council and the chair and chief executive of the Shannon Group. We are close to final arrangements involving the likes of Bunratty and the Cliffs of Moher retail unit going to Clare, King John's Castle going to Limerick and so on. There is remaining debt and those issues have to be resolved. It is appropriate that Clare County Council is taking over Bunratty. It will get revenue...