Results 941-960 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: The Deputy asked about district heating. There is a new subhead for it. A new research programme will start on it, or a new scheme is being scaled up. There has been ongoing research on geothermal energy. A report is due for publication shortly. Research has been done involving my Department and Grangegorman campus. Some boreholes have been dug to depths of 1 km and 3 km to explore the...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has asked Mr. Barry and Mr. Neely to oversee the preparation of a governance review of IFI, and that is to be delivered within three to six months. No amount of money has been set aside for the costs of that. A review had been commissioned from a senior counsel last May. If Deputy Whitmore wishes, I can go into the details of that. It was a review of the...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: Was it published?

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: If Deputy Whitmore could bear with me for a moment, I will look for the information.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: On 5 May last year, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, appointed Conleth Bradley SC under section 18 of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010, which relates to the removal of members from office, those members being members of the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland, to carry out a review of the exercise by the board of its functions under the Act. Mr. Bradley's report was received by the Minister on 27...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: What is relevant to the Estimates in terms of Inland Fisheries Ireland is subhead C8. There is a new funding programme totalling €500,000 to support IFI in planning to address the mitigation of barriers to fish passage. This is part of a long-term programme which is starting under the EU water framework. It is work we are required to do, managed by the Department of Housing, Local...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: It is under subhead C8. Does the Deputy have that in her Estimates? It is the Estimate for 2023 and totals €500,000.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: There is another €500,000 allocated from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Although €1 million is a small amount of money over a year, it is a first step. Some work can be done. There is a period of time where capacity is being ramped up. It is a long-term multi-year programme, over ten to 30 years. I expect the budget in future years will be in the...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: What was the question about Whitestown and Bray? Can the Deputy repeat that?

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: On the Bray dump, I understand works are being carried out by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, with the co-operation of Wicklow County Council. Funding was allocated and they are more than two years into the work. I will revert to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and ask how it is progressing with that. On the specific question on the dump in Bray, I may have some...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I am sorry; I will have to revert to the Deputy after the meeting. I do not have that information to hand. There is an allocation of €9 million for ten illegal dumps. I will get the details the Deputy wants on any specific dump.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: There is an allocation of €550,000 for the remediation of legacy mines, which are listed as Avoca silver mines and others. A feasibility study for the management and remediation of the Avoca mines site was completed in 2008. It costed two options for the long-term remediation of the mine, with capital costs of €58.5 million and €46 million, respectively. Both have...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: My understanding is the Government has, based on the feasibility study, made a decision to proceed and on what course of action to take. It will spend €3 million as soon as possible on urgent health and safety works. Some €450,000 has been allocated for this particular mine for this year. Does the Deputy feel a further feasibility study is warranted?

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I will come back to the Deputy on that. The 2008 study is old. A feasibility study from 2008 looks at technology options which have changed a lot since then. The Department has committed to updating that report based on the technology that exists now and coming up with a revised remediation plan and costs later this year.

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy. I will ask my officials to get back to him with a note on the dump in Belcamp in a similar way to other dumps. He made a general point about circular economy indicators. Similar to the previous question about key indicators, it would probably be worth having a review of them. I am open to any suggestions on that. The Deputy also asked about the sectoral targets....

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: The first question was about what shape the targets will take. When I look at the existing targets there are a lot of recycling targets but just about no reuse targets. I was looking at the waste electrical and electronic equipment, WEEE, scheme rules, which are due for update this year. The WEEE scheme, as the Deputy knows, is for bringing back electronics to retailers and so on. There...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I am not sure how avoidance would be measured, for example, which is what we are doing with coffee cups in that we are trying to get people not to use them, let alone reuse or recycle them. Avoidance is the first option. I am happy the French are introducing repairability ratings and there is an EU-wide scheme due on repairability and durability labelling. However, there is always an...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: The Government mandates that every Department follow its public procurement frameworks and if the public-----

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: How would energy efficiency among public sector bodies be measured? Would expenditure be measured?

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised) (21 Feb 2023)

Ossian Smyth: I will ask the EPA for advice on that.