Results 7,121-7,140 of 21,588 for speaker:Denis Naughten

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Broadcasting Sector (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: The Bill I referred to the committee is the broadcasting (amendment) Bill. One of its provisions is to amend section 145 of the primary Act to deal with evasion. On the legal advice received from the Office of the Attorney General, it is clear that the current legislation does not allow me as Minister to appoint a television licence agent by way of public tender. The amendment to section...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: I cannot give the Deputy a date on when the contract will be signed because this decision was only taken last Tuesday week and was only notified to me at that stage. We have not had the opportunity to consider the implications relating to the procurement process. I have given the Deputy the timelines we were looking at prior to that. I have also said that, based on the information...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: As I have stated many times recently, it is my personal commitment and a key priority for Government to have high-speed broadband delivered to every house, business, farm and school in Ireland, and a future-proofed broadband service.  I have long advocated for this service for rural Ireland and I am determined that high-speed broadband will be delivered to every single premises in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: The Deputy has asked a lot of questions.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: First, I am restricted in what I can say because we are in a procurement process-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: -----and if I were to say something here that would jeopardise that, Deputy Stanley would be the very one who would come in here and criticise me for that, and rightly so. The procurement team will appear before the committee on Thursday and the Deputy will have the opportunity to talk directly to the individuals involved in this process. On the issue of public ownership, that was...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: I will furnish the Deputy with a copy of it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: I am sure I will be love-bombed by Deputy Dooley this morning. I apologise, first of all, that I have a severe case of man flu. Were it not for Deputy Harty I would not be here at all today.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: He did warn me to be very careful. He said it is highly contagious.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: In an institution like this it could grind the country to a halt, so keep clear. I welcome the opportunity to speak again in the House on the national broadband plan. Right now, as I speak, seven out of ten premises in this country have access to a high-speed broadband service. By the end of this year I expect this proportion to rise to nearly eight out of ten, and by the end of 2020,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: First, I will address Deputy Dooley's question regarding the documentation that has or has not been submitted. The Deputy asked that question of me last Thursday and I told him that it was not within my competency to answer it. I believe Deputy Dooley has a meeting this week with the procurement team, which will respond to this query for him. I pointed that out last week.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: The intention was to have a preferred bidder by June 2017, and we have missed that particular target, absolutely. There are reasons for that, and I presume that officials will go through some of those with Deputy Dooley when they appear before the committee later this week. However, the timeline at which we are looking at the moment involves having a preferred bidder by September. On foot...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: Let me be crystal clear on this. When there were two bidders in the process, it was our expectation that we would have a preferred bidder by September. There is now one bidder in the process. As the Deputy knows, the procurement team has been sitting beside me for the last fortnight dealing with specific questions which were rightly put by Members of the Oireachtas, both formally and...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is already tasked with producing annual projections of greenhouse gas emissions for Ireland, in collaboration with relevant State and other bodies. A key input to these projections are annual forecasts of energy use, prepared each year by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The 2009 Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) established...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will deliver high speed broadband access of a minimum 30 megabits per second to 100% of premises in Ireland.   Today 7 out of 10 of the 2.3 million premises in Ireland have access to high speed broadband. Since this Government came into office almost 400,000 additional premises have access to a high speed...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Implementation (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: Currently some 15,000 premises in Roscommon and 77,000 premises in Galway have access to a high speed broadband service. Of these, around 2,300 premises in Roscommon and 10,800 premises in Galway have been passed as part of eir's on-going rural deployment of Fibre to the Home and can access a high speed broadband service of up to 1000Mbps. ...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan Administration (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: Last April, eir entered into a Commitment Agreement with my Department to deliver high speed broadband to 300,000 premises, predominantly in rural areas.  I understand from the company that this represents an investment of €200 million in rural Ireland. Following its withdrawal from the separate procurement process to appoint a company for the State led...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: On 20 July 2016, the European Commission presented a legislative proposal, the "Effort Sharing Regulation" (ESR), setting out binding annual greenhouse gas emission targets for Member States for the period 2021 to 2030. The targets cover sectors of the economy that fall outside the scope of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). These sectors, including the built-environment,...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Public Procurement Contracts (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure high speed broadband access (minimum 30 megabits per second) to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location.  The State led intervention aims to provide high speed broadband to areas where commercial operators are unlikely to invest.   The nature of this intervention has taken the form of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Public Procurement Regulations (14 Feb 2018)

Denis Naughten: Adherence to public procurement and competition rules by State agencies under the aegis of my Department is an operational matter for each Agency. Procedures for procurement by State Bodies are set out in the  Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016. In accordance with section 8.16 of the Code of Practice, it is the responsibility of the Board to...