Results 3,721-3,740 of 6,541 for speaker:Ruairí Ó Murchú

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I will follow on from where the Chair finished. On commercial bus operators, I accept what the Minister has said, which is that an NTA proposal would be required and that he is not against extending the 20% reduction to such operators. Am I correct in saying that the 50% reduction in student fares works by operators cutting their fares for such people in half and then getting something like...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: The Chair is right. Some operators are very worried. They want to be able to tell their potential customers when this is to come in because some will be making decisions about college on the basis of whether there is a commuter service that they can afford. I am sorry; I stopped the Minister halfway through.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That 70% is what is being talked about at the minute. That is the operators' understanding.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There will be a 50% reduction and the commercial bus operators will get 70% of that 50%.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: They have been told that this is based on some formula which suggests that, if they drop fares by 50%, even though that reduction will not be covered in full, the number of customers will increase. This was raised with me by Matthews Coaches, which does a lot of commuter work, particularly between Dundalk, Drogheda and Dublin, although it also serves east Meath. It provides services to...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: A fair amount of due diligence will have to be done. This firm had a foolproof business model that was impacted greatly. We will not really know what the reality of hybrid and remote working will be and the numbers it will be carrying until September, October or November. As the Chair said, with regard to students, it is about letting the operators know the realities as soon as possible so...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I imagine we will have further conversations on this. We started with discussion of National Broadband Ireland, NBI, and the €30 million. As Deputy O'Rourke said, this is not exactly a saving but arises from not reaching targets. We recently had what was probably our best interaction with NBI. Once it reaches or exceeds the targets, I do not believe anyone will complain. With...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I get that. At that point, there will need to be as much government intervention as possible to ensure a solution is reached as quickly as possible. The negotiations between NBI and Eir could go on forever if either party was not very interested.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is okay once we are keeping an eye on it and once all parts move as quickly as possible when the court case is over. Nobody will complain about timelines being improved. Deputy O'Rourke dealt with the issue of the money that was to be ring-fenced for retrofitting. It has been brought to my attention that a number of medium-sized builders involved in installing heat pumps, dealing with...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: What were the determining factors in setting the criteria for becoming a one-stop shop operator? I am no expert in this field, but I am told that the criteria are very tight, for example, a turnover of €1 million. I accept that the Minister would not want the Chairman, Deputy O'Rourke and I setting up a company to become a one-stop shop operator, for example, but I am talking about...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I accept that, but the companies I am referring to have been doing this work and facilitating the people who have come to them in dealing with grants and so on. They say that they cannot meet the criteria because those criteria require them to be very big operators. Why is that the case? This might be something that needs to be considered.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Is that covered in this?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is awful decent of the Deputy. It has been raised with me that becoming one-stop shop operators is an onerous process for people. I am afraid that this is creating another cause for a backlog and slowing down the entire operation. The people in question are worried from the point of view of-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Yes. They will not have the control they would have had previously. They are afraid that they will not necessarily benefit.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I thank the Minister. To follow-up on the issue of the Defence Forces, the Minister states it is a piece of work on the outside perimeter. Initially, the Minister and others had stated there is not a whole pile the Defences Forces could do in these circumstance and that there was no point calling them in. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, told the committee the DAA is a private...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Better to have and not to need. We all are in support of whatever can be done from the point of view of ensuring flying is as seamless as possible given the significant difficulties. I will not labour the point that we probably could have done this piece at an earlier stage because it was stated by the Minister and others that there was not too much to be gained and, to a degree, there is...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: Okay. We have constantly spoken at this committee about regional rebalancing. It would not come as any shock that many Deputies, and even Senators at the joint committee, would extol the virtues of Shannon Airport, which obviously would have nothing to do with their geographical location or whatever. In fairness, despite some of the serious discussion that has happened here regarding that...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: There are new machines.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: I have one final question. It relates to somebody who lives in the North, who has a Northern driving licence and who may want to become a taxi driver in the South. I am talking specifically about Dundalk, which will not come as a shock to anybody. The problem is that this person is not able to take the small public service vehicle test because a Southern driving licence is required in...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (6 Jul 2022)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: The problem is that we submitted a written parliamentary question on the matter previously. What came back was an answer from the NTA which was just a restatement of the for a person to hold Irish or EU driving licence, or-----