Results 5,361-5,380 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The costs arising from connecting new fibre assets to Metropolitan Area Networks and national backhaul networks can be broken down into various components, including optical fibre cable of various fibre counts and infrastructure rental covering poles, ducts, and co-location space. Some details of these costs are set out below.NBI have proposed to rent infrastructure from eir and enet as part...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: In relation to the National Broadband Plan my Department commissioned a comprehensive Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) in line with the Public Spending Code (PSC). A CBA Benefits report and a detailed benefits calculation annex was published in 2015 by my Department as part of the approval to launch the procurement process. All updates to the 2015 CBA were shared with officials in the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 531 to 535, inclusive, and 541 together. The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health,...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Biofuel Obligation Scheme (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The Biofuels Obligation Scheme, administered by the National Oil Reserves Agency, is the principal support for the uptake of biofuels in Ireland. The scheme was introduced in 2010 and requires suppliers of liquid road transport fuels to ensure that biofuels make up a portion of annual fuel sales. It works on the basis of tradable certificates - two certificates are awarded per litre of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Service Provision (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 537 and 538 together. The purpose of the National Broadband Plan is to ensure that over 1.1 million of our citizens in rural Ireland have the same opportunity to participate in the digital society as citizens living in urban areas. The availability of ubiquitous high speed broadband will bring significant benefits in areas of e-Health, e-Education, smart...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Data (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The unit price of cable per kilometre is information which is commercially sensitive within the telecommunications sector, as this fibre is sourced on the open commercial market. To disclose such information could allow suppliers to gain an unfair advantage and be disadvantageous to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) State intervention as a whole.The design of the NBP State intervention...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Public Spending Code (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The Public Spending Code sets out a comprehensive set of expenditure appraisal, value for money and related guidance covering all public expenditure projects. The Code contains standard analytical procedures for carrying out financial analysis and, in accordance with these procedures, VAT is excluded from project costs on the basis that it is a transfer payment. The cost of procurement...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Data (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The value of a company is generally based on its likely future profitability. While National Broadband Ireland will, similar to any commercial company, strive to maximise its revenue and profitability, it will be constrained due to State Aid restrictions and regulatory oversight of the prices it can charge. Under State Aid rules it cannot use the subsidised network to compete in commercial...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland has access to high speed broadband. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment across the country, and a State intervention in those areas where commercial operators acting alone are unlikely to invest. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: Granahan McCourt Dublin (Ireland) Limited and Tetrad Corporation are the investors responsible for providing all of the equity, working capital, performance related security and project deliverables. NBI Infrastructure Limited, trading as National Broadband Ireland (NBI) is a new entity established by Granahan McCourt for the purposes of delivering the NBP. It is this company that will...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Infrastructure (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: Power stations are an operational matter for the owner and operator of the power station, in this instance the ESB, and one in which I do not have a function. The 100 megawatt Lough Ree electricity generating station at Lanesboro, Co. Longford and the 150 megawatt West Offaly electricity generating station at Shannonbridge, Co. Offaly are both owned and operated by ESB. To date both...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Landfill Sites (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: In December 2018, Kildare County Council, the contracting authority, invited tenders for expressions of interest in the remediation of Kerdiffstown landfill. The closing date for submissions was extended until 14 February 2019 on foot of requests for more time made on the eTenders procurement website. This process of evaluation is still underway and Kildare County Council are currently...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Alternative Energy Projects (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I have recently set out a new ambition for Ireland, of reaching 70% renewable electricity by 2030, and details on how this will be delivered will be contained in the soon to be launched All of Government Climate Action Plan. The Plan will set out the necessary policy measures to help meet our 2030 target and will put Ireland on a clear pathway to meeting our 2050 objectives. The EU...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Electricity Generation (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The most recent Energy in Irelandreport which covered the period up to end 2017 was published in December 2018 by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). Renewables, including wind (25%) generated around 30% of Ireland's electricity in 2017, with the other main sources being gas at 51%, coal 12% and peat 7%. Provisional figures for 2018 show that renewables generated 32.5% of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Change Adaptation Plans (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 549, 556 and 564 together. The decision of the Dail to declare, on Thursday 9 May, a climate and biodiversity emergency in the context of endorsing the report of the Joint Committee on Climate Action is a significant statement. It underlines the importance that all Parties in the Dail attach to taking urgent action on climate. In response to this...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Alternative Energy Projects (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The most recent Energy in Ireland report which covered the period up to end 2017 was published in December 2018 by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). Renewables, including wind (25%) generated around 30.1% of Ireland's electricity in 2017, with the other main sources being gas at 51%, coal 12% and peat 7%. The SEAI estimates that there were 15.7 MW of installed solar PV...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Production (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: Overall electricity costs in Ireland are influenced by various drivers, including global gas prices, the costs of capital, exchange rate fluctuations, and the small size of the Irish market, geographical location and low population density. Data for electricity and gas retail price statistics are collected by Eurostat for European Union Member States including Ireland and these statistics are...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 552, 558 and 559 together. The National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland has access to high speed broadband. Following rigorous evaluation by my Department, I recently brought a recommendation to Government to confer Preferred Bidder status on Granahan McCourt, the remaining bidder in the NBP procurement...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Post Office Network (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: The provision of postal services and counter services is an operational matter for An Post and not one in which I, as Minister, have a function.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Waste Management (21 May 2019)

Richard Bruton: I am fully committed to discouraging the use of single use plastics as evidenced by the fact that I secured Government approval in January this year to ban the purchase of some commonly used single use plastic items by Government Departments and all public bodies and state agencies under the aegis of Ministers. I am awaiting the final adoption of a Directive from the EU which will enable me...