Results 641-660 of 32,091 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Health: General Practitioner Services (28 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 280. To ask the Minister for Health if he has set prospective dates by which he expects to extend the age groups who qualify for free GP services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41996/23]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Costs (28 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 298. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the concessions made on the student registration fee and the bonus payment on maintenance have been continued into the new academic year; if so, if he will indicate on what terms the concessions are available in the academic year 2023/2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41974/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I have a couple of statistical points. Mr. Magee gave a figure of one in seven of clients taking up the green opportunity. That it is a low figure is probably understandable. Do we have the same numbers for Enterprise Ireland? What are the numbers involved? What percentage of its client base is involved and how much of its budget goes on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: That is 171 out of how many companies?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: Wow. It is very low. Mr. Clancy said his clients generate 4.4 million tonnes. Is that solely what he calls "on site" or does that include transport and allied emissions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: The key question is, is Enterprise Ireland taking far too narrow a view of the sustainability challenge? Take food, for example. Some 40% of our emissions come from food globally, which is about 30 million tonnes. Enterprise Ireland is at the pivotal point. It represents food processors and supports them. They are key to all of the opportunities. Apart from just on-site emissions, there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: The EU has already imposed reporting on larger companies in respect of this whole supply chain. We have not made it a centrepiece of our policy yet.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: I recall Chris Horn some years ago talking about research in Ireland. He said that we have to move from launching individual boats to creating an admiralty. In this sphere, Enterprise Ireland needs to think of creating an admiralty, not individual initiatives. They are good in their own right but the future of food depends, in ten years' time, on the correction of a number of things that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: Are we in injury time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: Will targets be set for the take-up of schemes, or more global targets for where we ought to be on critical indicators of sustainability, be they the carbon footprint of our food products, the recycling content within our packaging, or 100% recycling of packaging? Will Enterprise Ireland set those sort of targets, which are the markers of success in sustainability?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: This has been a very useful discussion. The takeaway for me is that we should move to developing the sorts of sectoral compacts that have been pretty successful in the Netherlands. I certainly think of food, and you can see it in construction and probably in engineering. It is where you start to look at the whole responsibility, from, as Mr. Magee rightly said, design - they say 80% of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Impact on Carbon Budgets of Trend Towards Heavier and Larger Vehicles: Discussion (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: I thank the witnesses for the interesting presentations. To get down to brass tacks, as they say, can the witnesses give us a label for each car being sold that would indicate weight or embodied carbon - I do not know whether they are the same thing or are linearly connected - and its CO2 over a prospective 300,000 km lifetime? It would be a huge step forward if we could see that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Impact on Carbon Budgets of Trend Towards Heavier and Larger Vehicles: Discussion (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: Is there a linear connection between weight and embodied carbon? Is that a straightforward multiplication?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Impact on Carbon Budgets of Trend Towards Heavier and Larger Vehicles: Discussion (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: Is there a simple way of converting weight into embodied carbon? People do look at the figures for embodied carbon but they may not look at the figures for higher accident rates or greater road maintenance. The latter are issues for Government. Can we calculate the embodied carbon of different cars?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Impact on Carbon Budgets of Trend Towards Heavier and Larger Vehicles: Discussion (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: Is that correct? I have seen newspaper articles quoting very substantial numbers for the embodied carbon of SUVs, which are much greater than their lifetime fuel consumption.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Cybersecurity Policy (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 105. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment how the NIS2 Directive on cybersecurity will be implemented in Ireland; and whether consultation and an information campaign are planned to better inform the public and affected bodies. [40990/23]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Conservation (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 114. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will outline the details of those companies who are obligated entities in terms of energy savings; the extent of the obligation in each case; the opportunities for charitable bodies to seek support from such bodies to improve their energy consumption; and whether each entity has published contact details for...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Electric Vehicles (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 131. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport whether public service bodies who have outreach services delivered by employees using their personal cars are obliged to count the carbon impact of these journeys in their carbon impact; whether there are initiatives in place to facilitate the switch of this necessary mileage to electric vehicles; if there is a role for a centralised...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Pension Provisions (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 187. To ask the Minister for Finance if he has reviewed the value of the thresholds set out for tax relief on pensions; and if he will consider adjusting them, in view of the substantial inflation since they were set almost ten years ago. [41437/23]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Sep 2023)

Richard Bruton: 369. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection whether it is possible to set up a trust for a person with a severe disability, without undermining their eligibility for disability allowance, which normally assesses a nominal weekly means to all capital exceeding €50,000. [41173/23]