Results 3,341-3,360 of 6,508 for speaker:Ruairí Ó Murchú

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Again, that is necessary work. People who are still using solid fuel and do not have much of an option at the minute remains an issue. We need to give them that option and it is necessary that this work be done. Can I assume, regarding the information from the behavioural unit, that the SEAI has a set of instructions for best case delivery?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I am only a visitor but I imagine that the committee would like to receive the information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is necessary because one can be shown something, yet two days later forget the information unless one has a simple set of instructions to hand. So as not to offend half of the country I confirm that I am speaking about myself and not about anybody else. I am not sure if the following observation is fair or unfair. The owner of a middle-sized contracting company came to me and said...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: If a homeowner goes directly to the contractor and the contractor applies for grants, is there stuff they can no longer avail of?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is fair enough.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: On district or communal heating systems, dual location and geothermal may offer options which make complete sense and this can happen very fast. Has SEAI looked into in any way, shape or form at anything in that area? Poolbeg is obviously waste heat. I was in the regional development centre in Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, and it looked at studies being done on excess heat that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Retrofitting Schemes: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Literally and I am almost thinking in cartoon terms of energy supplies. As presented to me, it was like heat waste, in the unit on the back of a truck and one could then move this and it would be significant. I nearly fell off the seat when I heard it and I need to find out more information, but I am hoping that SEAI have been engaged in this sort of conversation on this more than I have.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is incredibly difficult to be in two places at once and I was holding out for an answer that did not come. I hold the Taoiseach responsible for that. I thank the witnesses, particularly Commissioner Jourová, and I acknowledge her kind words about the tragedy in Creeslough. Ireland is a small place and the Europe we are now in is also a small place and we are connected in many ways....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It has the numbers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I suppose it is a starting point and engagement is always worthwhile. There is a journey people have to make. It is possible to make it and maybe slightly easier than it should have been, but we are where we are. Will Ms Jourová speak about Poland's issues?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is due to the huge heavy lifting they are doing regarding the war in Ukraine. Beyond that, Poland is a place where, across all politics, people are supportive of the idea of the European Union.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is to be hoped that is enough to get us to a better place. That is vital. The western Balkans and others have a fair argument in saying nobody was considering them in recent years. The only thing is there are roadmaps, there is a possibility and everybody sees accession is there, but strict criteria must be met. That is sound, as it needs to be and should be.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is a different kettle of fish but I accept we are now looking at issues we were not looking at to the same degree. We are in an age of asymmetrical warfare, hybrid operations and cyber. The Russian state has always had a particular relationship with certain actions. We have all had to access our personal security and those pieces need to be dealt with. It crosses over into the two...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is the wider thing in relation to the European Union. When we are talking about protection of democracy, the biggest protection we need to look at is that the door has been left open for the likes of Marine Le Pen and other people across Europe because there are a huge number of people on the periphery who feel they have been left behind.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is a lot of bad politics playing into that but mainstream politics has not delivered for people economically. If we are intent on defending democracy, we have to make the world a better place for all in it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I ask about the algorithms because that is a wider issue in how we deal with peripherality, people on the margins and poverty. I do not think Ms Jourová will deal with that in the next four minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is over a third.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: They say of Facebook that you only know how the algorithm works for you and nobody else.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Undoubtedly so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: European Council Rule of Law Report 2022 and Rule of Law Situation in Ireland: Engagement with Ms Vra Jourová (11 Oct 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Frances Haugen and others have looked at trying to create within a virtual world how some of these social media algorithms work, and it is only at that point a determination in the rules can be made. Within GDPR, there are those pieces of information that cannot be used wrongly that relate to race, sexual orientation etc. One last-----