Results 3,841-3,860 of 21,588 for speaker:Denis Naughten

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: In response to the points raised by Deputy Bruton and the Minister of State, I absolutely agree with Deputy Bruton that we need to listen to the science and we need to hold Ministers to account. This legislation does provide for that. I am not disputing that. At the outset, I stated that this is important legislation. I do not disagree with the principle of it. However, science is not...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 125: In page 15, to delete lines 32 to 40, and in page 16, to delete lines 1 to 40 and substitute the following: "(6) The Government shall submit the draft carbon budget submitted to them under subsection (1)(d) for the approval of each House of the Oireachtas before it is published. (7) This section applies to the first and second carbon budget programmes and to an...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I wish to discuss my amendments Nos. 159, 163 and 164. Amendment No. 165 is related. I know it is not grouped with the other amendments. I will withdraw amendment No. 165. I will speak to the whole lot together. This comes back to the argument we had earlier about carbon budgets. While there may be some justification for the Minister of State's argument on the carbon budgets, I...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I am disappointed. I accept the point the Minister of State has made about section 4 but those measures are not legally binding. The same thing is in place for rural-proofing and it is very much a box-ticking exercise. I know how this process works and I accept the principle of what the Minister of State is talking about. The reality is that this will be little more than a box-ticking...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I will make a final point. The very same approach was taken to rural-proofing and it became a box-ticking exercise. Only after the policy was developed and before the memo was presented to the Cabinet it was rural-proofed, rather than at the concept stage. I have had plenty of experience of dealing with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I was involved in the specific...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I am only using that as an example and I am not hung up on it going into sectoral committees. The point I am trying to make and the point of my amendments, and I do not make specific reference to sectoral committees, is that the Oireachtas must deal with and decide on this. I am not hung up on it. It could be the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action or some other...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I found Deputy Bruton's analogy in respect of oil companies interesting. He is right in that regard, but the difficulty is that in agriculture we are quite happy to have the emissions levied on the farmer who produces the beef or milk, not where it is actually consumed. This is the argument I have been making all along. The system is perverse and has built in structures that benefit big...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 159: In page 17, line 14, to delete "the Government" and substitute "each House of the Oireachtas". I withdraw, with leave to reintroduce.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 163: In page 17, to delete lines 15 to 19. I withdraw, with leave to reintroduce.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 164: In page 17, line 28, to delete "the Government" and substitute "each House of the Oireachtas". I withdraw, with leave to reintroduce.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 165: In page 17, to delete lines 35 to 38.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 174: In page 18, to delete lines 31 to 40 and substitute the following: “(7) The Minister shall, as soon as may be, submit the revision to a carbon budget under subsection (2), (4) or (5) to each House of the Oireachtas for its approval before it is published.”. I am not going to over this debate again with the Minister of State. This is the same...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: We have moved beyond that. We are on amendment No. 174 now.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: Yes. If the Minister of State would not mind responding to the point I made, I would appreciate it.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: My basic point is that if the overall targets are being altered, positively or negatively as the case may be, for whatever reason, the altered targets should be approved by the Houses of the Oireachtas. Under the legislation as currently drafted, they are not.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: With all due respect to the Minister of State, I can say whatever I like; the reality is that no amendment has been accepted to date by Government. The Minister made it clear at the outset he would not be accepting amendments. It is therefore disingenuous to suggest I would put forward an amendment when it has been made crystal clear the Government is not prepared to accept any amendments...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I withdraw the amendment with leave to reintroduce on Report Stage.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I move amendment No. 211: In page 26, line 15, after “guidelines” to insert “following the approval of each House of the Oireachtas”. I thank the Chairman. This amendment is fairly self-explanatory and is in respect of the broader issue of consultation with the Oireachtas. Section 15 of the Bill,inter alia, states: The Minister may issue guidelines,...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: Briefly, I set out an extreme in this regard but I put it to Deputies Bruton and Whitmore and the Minister of State that if these guidelines that must be complied with by the local authorities are so innocuous, then why can they not be presented to the Dáil? What is the big fear in that regard? Why is such a provision not in the legislation? There is such a provision for planning...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Jun 2021)

Denis Naughten: I am disappointed with the Minister of State's response on this. The reality is that a Minister of the day could issue a directive to local authorities that they can no longer have one-off rural homes because of the impact that they have on our climate and emissions profile in respect of transport, in particular. Each local authority would have to comply with that. If the Minister made...