Results 2,501-2,520 of 6,500 for speaker:Ruairí Ó Murchú

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I hope I will be given leeway and be forgiven, as I had to leave. I had Alex McArdle, from the Marist school in Dundalk, up on work experience, so it is about trying to get all the box-ticking done and probably failing miserably. I imagine the Minister has already dealt to some degree with the issue of drones given the weekend we had. May I have some detail on what exactly is going to be...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is up to a seven-year sentence or something, is it not?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I mean taking control rather than anything else.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I accept that. There is a piece of work that must be done. I imagine even the committee has a piece to do on this, what best practice is across the world and a solution to the problem. Obviously, if we were dealing with good manners, we would never need legislation for most things. It is about getting the idea out that the area is not just the airport but 5 km around it every which way....

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I agree. I paraphrased what a garda had said whereby many rules and regulations would not be needed if people just complied with the law or had good manners in some cases or both. I accept that this is far more serious. We are talking about aviation here and we can all imagine the dangers, never mind the hold-up and that many people have also been impacted. That is the wider issue when we...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Without asking the Minister to look into a crystal ball, does he believe this is doable in a reasonable time, accepting that the Minister wants it to happen tomorrow?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I appreciate that. I will finish up on aviation. There is considerable conversation about sustainable aviation fuel. Perhaps Minister will give the committee an update on Government policy for making this happen. We are all aware of the environmental impact of aviation but we are an island and we all know the absolute necessity in making sure we stay connected. We just need to do it in...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: So, we are looking at something in the near future, call it a pilot or whatever. Obviously there are necessary moves that would need to happen. We are also dealing with An Post in this meeting. While everybody welcomes the allocated money, is it sufficient to ensure the sustainability of the post office network? My other question relates to the national broadband plan. We are all...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: No, and that is why the NDP is necessary. The plan is working. Obviously anyone who still has a number of years of waiting must be provided with an alternative in the short term and in an awful lot of places this has happened down to mobile phone companies and their low-earth orbit satellite systems etc. A piece of work is being done by the mobile and broadband task force and the...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Yes.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I have to disagree with the Minister on one issue because I am not sure it is great to always have the kids in the back of the car. That statement should probably be struck from the record. I thank the Acting Chairman for his suggestion, which is a solid solution in relation to school transport. We know the service, which falls under the Minister's remit, has always been a mess. In...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is a wider issue in that we are looking for 40 temporary workers where the RSA thinks we need 40 permanent workers. It says it has that proposal in front of the Minister too. I think we have to do whatever we can to expedite that.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I do not see the need changing. We have spoken before about rail and electrification. We have been over and back on the matter of the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise service. I welcome that the right moves are being made to deliver this on a yearly basis. I was somewhat worried about the timeline. Can this be delivered at some point this year? Does the Minister have any information on this to...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I accept that with regard to regional development. Better connectivity to the North is finishing that piece of the east coast jigsaw that is absolutely necessary. I have seen this in a number of places. I thought the timeline was going to be longer. Are we talking about potentially delivering the hourly service this year?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I agree with the Minister. We have had a number of interactions about the National Cyber Security Centre, which has probably grown from when the conversation started. Many people were probably unaware of its existence until the HSE cyberattack. I am wondering about our state of readiness and the conversations that need to be had between the NCSC and others, whether critical infrastructure...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I agree. It is a race that one will never finish running. It is about ensuring we have all the required resources. I have an ancillary question. Have we looked into more directed spyware, which is used against high-value targets and has probably been used by a number of questionable regimes across the world? Pegasus is probably the most famous but there is also Predator. Unfortunately,...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is just something that I am putting on the agenda. In fairness, it has been put in the public domain by a number of journalists. The Pegasus issue was dealt with at a European Parliament level. This is obviously dangerous. Someone might target, for example, Deputy Eamon Ryan, take over his phone and, from their point of view, hopefully get information they could use against him. It is...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I have a quick final question. We have been dealing with the ComReg legislation. Particular legislation was brought in. We all accept, in the world we live in, that we need to ensure that communication infrastructure is secure. It is about making sure due diligence is carried out in respect of the information we are reliant on. I have no problem with us securing further assurances in that...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: The Minister does not share the worries of some of these companies whereby they might find themselves in that situation of having to remove component A, B or C.

Report on the Summer Programme 2023: Motion [Private Members] (2 Feb 2023)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I thank the Chairman of the committee, Senator Carrigy, for the report and my colleague Deputy Buckley for sponsoring it. I thank all the members of the committee for the work they have done. In particular, I thank them for the room they have made for me. From time to time, I might have overstepped the line regarding the speaking time I took. I will try not to do that today. The point...