Results 881-900 of 4,010 for speaker:Jennifer Whitmore

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (26 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Approximately 4,500 children are waiting for their first appointment with child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, including hundreds in my constituency of Wicklow. Thousands of children are struggling every day with anxiety and with going to school. They are self-harming, have suicidal ideation and are struggling with eating disorders. Thousands of parents have to sit and watch...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Today is international day against climate change, an initiative set up by the UN to create awareness of the threat of global warming. It is an issue that people in Midleton and places like Waterford need no reminder of; they are all too aware of the threat of global warming. Climate change is here. We do not have much discussion in the Chamber about adaptation and how we will actually...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I will pick up on some of Deputy Murphy’s questions. To clarify, the witnesses are not proposing biodiversity offsets.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I would be very concerned if there was even a potential to go down that road. Just look at Australia where I think a developer had a $600 fee to pay to destroy a koala habitat under the offset programme that was set up by the New South Wales government. That is something that we would not want to endorse or in any way go in that direction.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Any of these measures would also have to be supported in parallel by really strict regulations on what can happen. Take, say, a woodland on a developer's site. That would have to be protected for being there, essentially.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Absolutely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Okay. On the current system, our budgets and how we budget, sometimes a certain amount of money might be set aside for particular programmes that are valuable and for positive things to happen but we are not seeing the system change across the entire budgetary spectrum to really effect the shift we need to see. Is that a concern about our budget that we do not have a cohesiveness across...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I thank the witnesses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I apologise if I am asking the same questions but in a slightly different way. I am just trying to get my head around this. On fiscal policy and environmental taxation, the Department says there is a suite of environmentally progressive elements to the taxation regime. Did Mr. Owens say earlier that, to date, biodiversity has not been assessed or incorporated into that progressive assessment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: One of the examples given references the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 and its relationship to the occupation of woodland. Are there any requirements for this woodland to be of a certain type or standard to ensure it is positive for biodiversity as opposed to, for example, a Sitka spruce plantation? Is there differentiation within the tax scheme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: It is in the programme but not in the taxation system.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: This is a sort of perverse incentive. One of the recommendations from the assembly was there should be a complete review and analysis of each of the taxation and levy measures. Is that something the Department is prepared to undertake?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: On this year's budget, a €3 billion climate fund was established. When I initially heard of that, I thought it was a very positive step. However, I was disappointed to learn it would not kick in until 2026. I do not know whether the witnesses can speak to the rationale for that decision. My understanding is that, when some people raised the question of why it was not to begin until...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Would it not be better off to use it? That is for capital investment and capital investments take time to get up and running. For example, it took a year and a half to get a single electric vehicle charger into Blessington so we are not particularly fast when it comes to investments for climate action. Would it not make more sense to invest now and build those projects now? That would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: The Department of Finance is not responsible for the climate action fund. I understand that is with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications but the Department of Finance has an oversight function with it. Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: The Department of Finance has some interaction on it then. I have been digging into the climate action fund a bit. In 2021 there was €124 million in the fund, which primarily came from the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy and only €9.5 million was spent. Similarly, in 2022 an extra €92 million was put in and only €17 million was spent. That means that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Data centres, housing.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Data (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: 125. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to provide a copy of annual accounts of the Climate Action Fund, as submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46615/23]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Data (24 Oct 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: 140. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to provide the details of the source of the revenues paid into the Climate Action Fund, on an annual basis from 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46612/23]