Results 7,861-7,880 of 21,588 for speaker:Denis Naughten

Priority Questions: National Mitigation Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: To which target is the Deputy referring? Is it the 20% or 16% figure?

Priority Questions: National Mitigation Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: The big risk with regard to paying significant fines is in not reaching renewable energy targets. I am confident that we will reach our electricity targets and the projections available to me indicate that we will reach a figure of 40%. It is important to remember that we are the global leader when it comes to supplying variable and renewable electricity on the grid. Currently, we can take...

Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: I am taking Questions Nos. 27, 52 and 53 together. The 2012 Government policy statement on the strategic importance of transmission and other energy infrastructure states "The Government does not seek to direct EirGrid and ESB Networks or other energy infrastructure developers to particular sites or routes or technologies." On 19 December 2016 An Bord Pleanála granted...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: Deputy Sherlock can read the blacks of last week when I read exactly the reason. As I have said here today, it was a commercial decision that the company took and, as the Deputy knows, it uses a different route to the door to that of the other two bidders. Deputy Stanley spoke about the requirement to have three tenders. That is grand when we know what type of a door we want and how...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: The Deputy does not.

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: This is the fundamental difference. What we are doing has never been done anywhere else in the world. I am open to correction on this but, as of today, we have broken all records. Some 13% of premises outside of our cities have access to pure fibre. This is not happening anywhere else in the world. We are at the cutting edge. Vint Cerf, who was at the Digital Data Summit on 16 June,...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: It will not have any impact on the emergency services. It is being auctioned by ComReg and allows for the deployment of the new innovative technologies. Initially it will be 4G plus, but trials are already being proposed on 5G. There will be pilots by some of these companies.

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: It is 300 Mbps.

Priority Questions: National Mitigation Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: I published Ireland’s first statutory national mitigation plan in July 2017. This is an important initial step to enable the transition to a low carbon economy and society. The plan identifies 70 mitigation measures and 106 related actions to address the immediate challenge to 2020 and to prepare for the EU targets that Ireland will take on for 2030. The latest projections of...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: First, and it is not me who stated this, because no one in this House has believed me when I have said it on numerous occasions, but Adrian Weckler, in the Irish Independenton 6 July, who stated: "It is very possible that much of the current private-sector fibre rollouts from Eir...and...SIRO [and now Enet] would not [have happened] without the spectre of the National Broadband Plan hovering...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: No, 542,000.

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: The quicker broadband is delivered to rural Ireland, the better. If it comes on a hare's back it cannot come quickly enough. We are all agreed on that. A significant amount of work has been done, which I will come to in later parliamentary questions, in facilitating the maximum deployment by the commercial operators in this regard. It is a complex procurement process. It is also an...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: I thank the Deputy for acknowledging the fact that we have now moved from a situation where the proposed intervention area, which comprised 900,000 premises across rural Ireland, is now down to 542,000 premises. The European Commission has been kept fully updated on an ongoing basis on all of this. It is fully conscious of every aspect of this, from the pre-notification decision that was...

Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: I propose to take Questions Nos. 23 to 25, inclusive, together. Before responding to the question, I wish to inform Dáil Éireann that, as of today and under the commercial stimulus provided under the national broadband plan, Ireland has now become a global broadband leader with 13% of premises outside of our cities now with direct access to pure fibre, 1000 megabits per second,...

Priority Questions: Post Office Network (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: It is Government policy that An Post remains a strong, viable company in a position to provide a high quality, nationwide postal service and that it maintains a nationwide, customer focused network of post offices in the community. However, the An Post group lost €13.7 million in 2016, with the core mail business losing over €30 million. An Post has entered a period...

Priority Questions: Post Office Network (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: An Post brought in the firm of consultants, McKinsey, to assist with the strategic review. As Minister, I brought in NewEra to assist the company and to go through the financial projections. It is imperative that I have the best possible information available to me and having a resource like NewEra is of huge benefit in that regard. The Deputy is right that a do-nothing scenario is not...

Priority Questions: Post Office Network (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: I disagree with the Deputy. I do not think it is a case of deciding how many post offices are needed. There is an opportunity to bring far more business into post offices in order to make them financially viable. An Post is going to come up with a plan that can actually put more business, work and footfall into post offices. There is a real opportunity here because there is a cohort of...

Priority Questions: Post Office Network (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: It would be great if we could predict that.

Priority Questions: Post Office Network (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: I would advise Deputy Stanley not to buy a lottery ticket if he is so unlucky.

Priority Questions: Post Office Network (4 Oct 2017)

Denis Naughten: Gabh mo leithscéal, my understanding was the first question was on An Post but I am happy to answer the parliamentary question. Am I correct?