Results 701-720 of 30,220 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We set that out in the Government-approved climate action plan last week. For transport, rail freight is critical. As the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, stated this morning, road freight is the most challenging issue in transport. There has to be a strategic decision to switch to rail freight. That requires Dublin Port, the Port of Cork and the Port of Limerick to make the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank Deputy Bruton. This morning, the EPA said, as it said last year, that we are starting to deliver on retrofitting. We are starting to see targets met in our homes. One reason for that is that we have continued the carbon taxation system that was put in place in Deputy Bruton's time in government and it is working. It delivers social progressivity. It helps to protect against fuel...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Through the production of the car.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That is the logic behind the carbon border adjustment mechanism. Ultimately, this NECP goes through a European Union process where it is collectivised. It will go to Belém in Brazil next year, where we have to update the national determined contribution. That is where we will know whether we are serious about climate, globally. The global stocktake shows we are not on track globally...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I will give another example. Cork BusConnects is going to another consultation. I am pulling my hair out saying that we have to be quick here. I was down in Cork on Friday, where the public and the councillors are kind of behind BusConnects now. The consultation process is so long that in three years' time when we finally come to the decision, we may have lost the people. That happened...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Six years ago. That is part of our problem. We have such complicated legal requirements to meet on consultation and other processes. It sometimes takes so long that it undermines the benefit of the system.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: No, they do not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: No, but it is very well funded, well paid, is tax free and the product is tax free at the end of it. The way it has been designed is to promote farming and forestry, where you are not giving up farming but rather stitching it into your system. It will take time for that to take off, but it will. What the Deputy said is true. There have been historical examples. Farming is a precarious...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Briefly, before we go on to that, I am told that there are about 40 projects ready to go. To be honest, one of the things we have to be most careful of in anaerobic digestion is that we do not do what happened up North, where there was a kind of carte blanche or whatever you are having yourself. They ended up having very significant air pollution and water quality problems. The most...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It is real and it is happening. Companies like Baxter up in Mayo have switched to using container rail freight shipping out of Waterford. We will be putting in an order for new rail freight wagons, which will help develop that trade. We are building the new rail line to Foynes - I was there myself a few weeks ago - across the Deel river, and there was a new Deel bridge, which is concrete,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: No, it will not but the first part we need is the section from Claremorris to Athenry. That is not funded. It is not in the NDP, and it is not even in the €100 billion list of projects I said are out there. We do have to make political decisions. It should be a priority because it brings better balanced regional development, and all of those industries along the west coast would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It is starting to be but we need to get that finalised and confirmed. As I said earlier to Deputy Whitmore, freight is actually one of the biggest challenges in transport and I do not see another alternative. I think the switch to electric would also make rail freight economic where it was not previously. The economics of running a truck from Sligo to Dublin Port and back on a single...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: -----and the cost of having to recharge will mean that rail freight will start to become competitive. You have a marshalling yard in the north west, you run-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: -----an electric truck short haulage to get the goods to the factory, and I think that is why the whole freight system is going to change.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It is, and we have already published it and sent it out to consultation. We cannot just think about this on a 2030 time horizon. It is three-decade change that we will have to be engaged in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: There is further work that every sector will have to do. I think the Leas-Chathaoirleach is right when he says that agriculture – the farmers, the farming organisations and the industry - is taking this seriously . If one is trading on the Origin Green brand and not real about it, it will not work. Agriculture’s emissions are complicated. There is actually a relatively low...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Absolutely. However, there are additional measures that will help to close that gap. It includes the measures promoted by Teagasc – some of the technical measures, including the likes of, for example, the use of feed additives. It is difficult to model because the science around that is only evolving and the application in a pasture-led cattle system is different from where it might...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I do not believe the reduction of the grant was the reason for the slowdown in the expansion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It will be really challenging. We have to think long term. It is not just about getting to 2030. We know the European Commission and others are saying we need a 90% reduction by 2040.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Finalisation of Draft National Energy and Climate Plan and the National Long-Term Strategy: Discussion (28 May 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I agree with Deputy Kenny. We have to fund farming, forestry and nature protection to deliver on the objectives. This is where the farming community is starting to come around, that it is not the environment versus farming and that we have to work together. The environmental community is certainly of that view. I have a few examples. A figure €1.3 billion that has been set aside...