Results 601-620 of 26,565 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: South Dublin District Heating Company was set up in 2020 as Ireland’s first not-for-profit energy utility. It is fully owned and operated by South Dublin County Council. The associated district heating project uses waste heat generated by the nearby Amazon data centre (the heat is provided at no cost by Amazon as part of their zero-carbon commitment) to supply heat to public and...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 40 and 41 together. The Climate Action Fund (CAF) does not receive an annual Voted allocation, but rather receives income from various sources including the National Oil Reserve Agency (NORA) Levy and from Government flight emissions offsets. The NORA Levy is a levy charged on disposals of petroleum products. It is collected by the National Oil Reserve...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: State Bodies (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The information sought in the Question is an operational matter for the State body concerned and, as such, it is not information held by my Department. It is suggested that the Deputy contact the Body directly in relation to this matter. Contact details for the body is as follows: oireachtas@cru.ie.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 43, 45, 46, 47 and 67 together. The Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS) Community Enabling Framework was launched in 2022. It provided a range of supports, including grant funding of potentially up to €180,000, offered from SEAI to community renewable energy projects, to help them participate in the RESS. To date, two community projects (both under...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Programme for Government commits to promoting the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS) to simplify market access for community owned solar and wind projects and to supporting communities to secure grid access for local renewable projects. Seven community projects were successful in the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 1 (RESS 1) auction, (five solar and two wind...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: State Bodies (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The assignment of staff to particular work areas is an operational matter for the SEAI. I have asked the SEAI to respond directly to you to provide the specific data sought as soon as possible.Additionally, the SEAI has established a specific email address for queries from Oireachtas members so that such queries can be addressed promptly, in line with the SEAI’s objective to deliver...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Just Transition Commission, established on an administrative basis by Government, will provide impartial, strategic, and evidence-based advice to Government to inform policy planning related to just transition across different sectors. It will also provide advice to support the Government and wider societal stakeholders in managing this transition. The chair and members of the Just...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Circular Economy Innovation Grant Scheme (CEIGS) is funded from the Circular Economy Fund and was first launched in 2021. This multi-annual scheme directly supports the growth of the circular economy in Ireland and provides high-profile examples of best practice to inspire others. A key objective is delivering innovative projects that will have a direct impact on operating environments,...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department funds a number of grant schemes, administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to support homeowners improving the energy efficiency of their buildings, and to promote the adoption of renewable energy systems. These schemes include grants for the fabric upgrade of buildings (e.g. insulation), as well as solar PV and heat pump installation. The total...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: National contributions to the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) annual budget are calculated pro rata based on the United Nations scale of assessment. Ireland's 2024 subscription to the ECT was €44,708.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Irish Environmental Network (IEN) is an independent organisation whose membership includes 30 Irish environmental NGOs that work at the national level to support a range of climate and environmental initiatives across Ireland. The IEN submit a formal application for grant assistance on an annual basis. The following funding has been provided to the IEN since 2020: 2020 ...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Schemes (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) programme supports high impact investments, where an energy efficient design (EED) process is followed to design out energy consumption and develop high performance projects. The EXEED programme was relaunched in March 2023 to provide projects with increased support to a maximum of €3 million and an improved application process. It is...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Schemes (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: In Budget 2025, EXEED was assigned €3 million in Exchequer funding. €2.6 million was capital funding and €400,000 was for current expenditure. If the funding for EXEED was to be doubled for both capital and current expenditure, it would amount to €6 million in total.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Schemes (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 65 together. The primary objective of the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) is to contribute to meeting Ireland’s renewable energy targets, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The scheme was developed to incentivise the delivery of an additional 3% of heat use in Ireland from renewable sources, and offers financial support for...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Illegal Dumping (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Under the Waste Management Act, the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to illegal dumping lies with the local authorities. It is a matter for each local authority to determine the most appropriate awareness, enforcement, clean-up and disposal actions in relation to illegal dumping, taking account of local circumstances and priorities. The Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 86 together. The breakdown of the budget allocations for each Programme under the Subhead B04 – Residential/Community Retrofit Programmes, provided for in the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) for each of the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, are set out in the table below. While a Further Revised Estimates Volume (FREV) was published in May 2024...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS) was approved by Government on 21 December 2021, to support Ireland’s ambitious targets for micro-generation installations, under the Climate Action Plan 21. The MSS provides supports to both domestic and non-domestic applicants, in the form of grants for Solar PV installations, which are available through the Sustainable Energy Authority of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Renewable Energy Generation (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: Under the Programme for Government, Government reaffirmed the target of increasing renewable generation to supply 80% of our electricity demand and to continue the annual Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auction programme to underpin this. The RESS auctions provide pathways for renewable developers to plan and develop their projects, with supported technologies including, but...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Renewable Energy Generation (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) supports delivery of our Climate Action Plan target of meeting 80% of electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2030. In 2023, my Department staged our first offshore wind auction under the RESS, known as ORESS 1. Of the six participants in the auction, four projects were successful and were awarded supports under the RESS. These...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Environmental Policy (28 May 2025)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 83 and 84 together. The Communities Energy Grant (CEG) Scheme is part of the Government's National Retrofit Programme. The primary objective of the scheme is to support and maximise the number of home energy upgrades delivered. Non-domestic projects are also supported to encourage broader community engagement and mobilisation. Other objectives include:...