Results 881-900 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Freedom of Information (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The total number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to my Department in the years 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024, and the total number of FOI requests that were rejected are set out in the table below: Year Total FOI Requests Received Total Number of FOI Requests Rejected Number Refused under Section 15(1)(a) 2022 ...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Active Travel (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: As the Deputy may be aware, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including, in consultation with Iarnród Éireann, bike lockers at train stations. Noting the NTA's responsibility in this matter and the specific issues raised by the Deputy, I have referred the Deputies' questions to the NTA...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: As Minister for Transport I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to the National Roads Programme. Under the Roads Acts 1993-2015 and in line with the National Development Plan (NDP), the operation and management of individual national roads is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. This is...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Greenways Provision (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to Greenways. The planning, design, and construction of individual Greenways is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. I understand that TII do not currently have a greenway planned between the village of Béal...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Greenways Provision (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and exchequer funding in relation to Greenways. The planning, design, and construction of individual Greenways is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. I understand that TII do not currently have a greenway planned from the town of Macroom to The Gearagh...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: EU Funding (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Deputy, Please see below table setting out the funding and expenditure profiles for the Cork Commuter Rail project, which is funded under the EU's Recovery and Resilience Programme. - 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 - €m €m €m €m €m ...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: As the Deputy may be aware, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including, in consultation with Iarnród Éireann, any proposed new train stations. Noting the NTA's responsibility in this matter and the specific issues raised by the Deputy, I have referred the Deputies' questions to the NTA...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: Funding was provided under Budget 2024 for the continuation of the 20% average fare reduction on PSO services, and for an extension of the upper limit of the YAC/student leap from 23 to 25 years of age, which provides a 50% fare reduction for those in third level education. Public transport fare initiatives will form part of my discussions with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Legislative Programme (24 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The current legislation in operation regarding horse-drawn carriages in Dublin City is the Dublin Carriages Act 1853-1855. Local authorities in other areas can regulate horse-drawn carriages under the Local Government Act 2001. Due to a provision in the Local Government Act 2001 that prevents local authorities from making bye-laws where power exists elsewhere in legislation, Dublin City...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Chair and the committee members for having me here today as part of the enhanced climate governance and reporting procedures implemented by the 2021 climate Act. This provision in the Act supports greater transparency and accountability in how we plan and deliver our climate action. This committee has an important role in this process, that is, reviewing the climate action plan...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Chair. We are going to have to throw everything at transport, which is the hardest to change. This is because we have embedded a car-dependent system. I am not blaming anyone or any individual who is driving, because they often have to do so to carry out everyday functions. It is difficult. We are going against a system that for many decades designed our systems and towns on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Deputy. I agree with him. First, I want to focus on renewables and the electricity sector in general. The two are completely connected. We are moving towards a renewable electricity system. Addressing the transport sector is probably the hardest thing. The electricity sector is probably proving to be the fastest in making the change, which is understandable because there are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I am referring to the time it takes to get through a legal process. That is equally an issue. The planning and legal systems have proven to be a genuine bottleneck. The planning system was particularly bad in recent years due to difficulties in An Bord Pleanála. We did not have a large number of projects coming through the planning system to go into the auction system. That was a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The Deputy will recall that was very much centre stage in our minds because of international developments in which pipelines, including the Nord Stream and Baltic gas pipelines, and fibre-optic networks were taken out. If this happened to the two gas interconnectors coming into this country, it would have very significant repercussions for the Irish public, which we have to try to avoid....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: It will still take number of months. Even if proceed as we are already going, without the further analysis which I asked to be developed, it would still be a number of months because it is highly complex. Very good analysis has been done by Gas Networks Ireland looking at the technology that would be best used. It is fair to say that some of the lessons from this are different from what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I thank Deputy Bruton. It is not easy to get your head around this because it is so complex. It is a wicked problem in the first place and while, in many cases, the solutions are very beneficial and are at the centre of an industrial revolution, they are in many sectors and they are technical, and this is difficult. Keeping on track of how we are doing is the job of the EPA. Its annual...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: This year, the EPA's sectoral assessment reasonably gives the most accurate sense of the showing in each sector. I read them in my introduction, with decreases in agriculture of 4.6% and in residential of 7% while transport had an increase of 0.3%. This is the baseline for this entire approach. It is encouraging that there is progress. It was even more encouraging last week when it was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That is what I understand from our best modelling agency in Cork, the university MaREI centre. That is just from reports in the media. I have not talked to it since, but my understanding is that it is saying we seem to be on track to meet our first carbon budget. If that transpires, that would be a remarkable achievement because it requires such an incredible leap.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That is what I said when I was qualifying. According to the latest research from our best modelling university, to meet it would still require at least an 8% per annum reduction. We delivered 6.8% last year so it would be a scaling up from that. It is no small challenge before us.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Review of the Climate Action Plan: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (19 Sep 2024)

Eamon Ryan: That did not help us on our land use side. We have started to separate out how we treat land-use emissions, like a lot of European and other countries, recognising that there is a completely different characteristic. My understanding is that land-use emissions last year went from approximately 3.9 million tonnes source of emissions to between 5 million and 6 million tonnes. I apologise, I...