Results 2,961-2,980 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I agree and that is why we are going to fund, through the climate action fund, the incentives to make that happen. The key partnership is with the grid. It is where you have sufficient power supply. I agree with the Deputy and we will work with local authorities to make that work. Similarly, I agree on vehicle size. We are working with the Department of Finance which has a remit in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I agree with Deputy Bruton. One of the mechanisms we are using to deliver on sustainable mobility plans as part of the overall delivery of the climate action plan is the establishment of task forces which are designed to get us out of silos and to bring in outside agencies. Often, it is Departments that do not talk to each other, never mind other organisations, and we have deliberately...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I do not quite understand. By corrective actions, does the Deputy mean in terms of adjusting to be more ambitious?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I will give three examples to the Deputy. First, the most critical point is that we have to do much more on transport. We have to turn those figures around and to have more impact. The measures we have in place are working but the law tells us that we have to do more and it is correct. What might that mean? It is an emphasis on road space reallocation and making quick decisions around...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The Deputy is right. The solution cannot be more road capacity because, effectively, it is leading to the M50, which is at full capacity. Even then, we are rightly going to allocate space on the M50 for BusConnects. Therefore, we would be bringing traffic to a complete bottleneck. That would serve no one. The Deputy is right; there has to be alternative. There has to be investment in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I absolutely agree with the Deputy and share his concern that some of the cooking oils or biofuels that are imported into Europe and claimed to be waste cooking oil may come from other sources. That is something we have to stamp out. That has to be done at European level because Europe has the competence and scale when it comes to the monitoring and enforcement of that. In addition, it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We will have it shortly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That is true, but we expect to have approximately 13 terawatt hours, TWh, of electricity surplus from renewables by the end of the decade. That is not a small amount. If we wait it out, the offshore wind and onshore wind and solar, we can build.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: No, but there will be times, particularly when it is windy, when there will be surplus energy. How we use that will be key.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We will be looking for solutions. Solutions will start to arise, including in our offshore programme. We will designate approximately 2 GW of offshore renewables that we want to convert into molecules or power-to-X solutions. Out of that, we will start to seek models. It is not too distant. We will start to see hydrogen programmes and projects, initially at test phase, in the coming years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We need to take out Covid because it distorts the figures. One of the reasons there was a large percentage increase last year is that it was coming up from a Covid base. If one looks from 2019 to 2023, however, although there was significant population growth and, similarly, the economy grew by 15% or 20% or something in that region, there were approximately 45 billion km driven in 2019 and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, I can. First, I am very glad that we have the restoration of the assembly and the Executive up North. I note that we do not yet have the timeline around some of the North-South ministerial meetings. That is needed to co-ordinate, and I am really looking forward to it. We need to get down to business quickly, but we have to await the timelines around that. I have couple of points to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: My response to that is the same as I would for Dublin, namely, the metro is not just for Dublin Airport, but for all the institutions. Similarly, a Shannon rail connection would not just benefit the airport. There is a very successful industrial estate and a very large town that would benefit, so it is not just about the airport.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: With regard to Wicklow, similar to other projects, it was not in any plan or in the NDP, but I am absolutely convinced that we can and will deliver it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The timeframe would be in the next two to three years. The challenge with all of these projects is getting the grid connection and power, because we need a very high power capability when there is a battery electric train running off the wires, which would be the case in Wicklow. That project would take longer if we were to electrify all the way to Wicklow. My understanding is that is not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We have to work with the NTA. The political direction that I would give to it is that we want to extend the service to Bray. It is doable, so the answer is "Yes". If I can, I will just make a point on Local Link. I got some figures that will give the scale of it. Deputy Whitmore said that things have not changed that much. I only have aggregated figures for Carlow, Kilkenny and Wicklow.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Carlow and Wicklow are adjoining counties and they are similar. In 2019, before Covid, there were about 12,700 Local Link services in those three counties. Last year there were 132,900. That is a fifteenfold increase.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: There has been a 1,500 % increase in patronage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: If I can, I will respond to Deputy Bruton's point. Many of the reasons for the slow progress are on the planning side; it is not just in transport. Deputy Bruton mentioned renewable energy. There had not been a renewable energy farm passed for two or three years, partly because An Bord Pleanála was in real difficulty and did not have enough resources. That has been addressed and it...