Results 3,141-3,160 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The most contested side is always current expenditure. With regard to the overall funding the total funding for TFI Local Link rural services under the PSO was €20 million. My understanding is that we on track for the €56 million spend. It depends on the exact configuration as it is a five-year programme. It is a very good programme. Our entire transport system is...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: My officials are wisely informing me of the fact that Deputy O'Rourke is seeing, which is correct, a reduction in the budget. This was a reduction in the overall figure year on year. The figure increased last year because we introduced a supplementary budget. Because of the year-on-year accounting system halfway through the year we found ourselves not being able to deliver all of the...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The basic point is that the benefit of the Connecting Ireland scheme's five-year approach is that it gives us certainty. There is a difficulty in how we match it to the annual budgetary process, which by its very nature is stop-start. We need to switch to multi-annual funding. This will not be easy. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform will...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: They are being developed at present. It will not be as large a number as last year.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We expect it mid-year this year.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Summer.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I think the reference document to read to give some background is the summer economic statement of last year, which set out what additional capital expenditure will cost the Government in each of the years 2024, 2025 and 2026. Roughly, if I recall correctly, it will be €250 million in 2024, €730 million in 2025 and €1.3 billion in 2026. Obviously, we, along with other...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It is the infrastructure, climate and nature fund and most of the climate bit has been clearly indicated towards the retrofitting of public buildings, expanding anaerobic digestion, rolling out district heating and increasing support for solar panels in various sectors and so on. I could go on. The same is true of the nature part of the fund. The climate and nature bit is certainly...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: There is a combination of reasons, and if we can suddenly overcome them, we will go back to what we did last year and put in a Supplementary Estimate. The shortage of drivers and mechanics is a significant issue, if I am being upfront and honest, but if you think of it as a five-year programme, you can perceive it slightly differently. In December, we introduced 21 new services. These are...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, we are on track. We are there or thereabouts.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, but projects scale up. We are roughly on track.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Hold on. Passenger numbers grew by 120%-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Show me another example of any public service that has doubled in one year.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I accept the point. If we can deliver this faster and further and get both the budget and drivers, I will go further.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (7 Feb 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Yes, and I am looking forward to that. John O’Dowd and I met last year in the hope the assembly would come back. We discussed a number of infrastructural projects but it was a very short meeting. We talked about the return of the North-South Ministerial Council and our sectoral ministerial meetings. I had a very good relationship with his predecessor, Nichola Mallon, and I look...