Results 10,581-10,600 of 26,394 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: I wish Mr. Carroll well in all of the work he does. We all want to make sure that we reach our targets and we are all focused on making sure that climate action means action and that we reach the targets we set. We have to be honest, however, and say that up to now we have not and in many areas we are lagging behind. Mr. Carroll talked about retrofit. The Taoiseach is at an international...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: That is my point. It is easy to throw out those figures and say that we will do something by 2050. Let us come back to planet earth. In reality, will we be in a position in 2050 where we will have spent €50 billion on retrofitting homes? That is what drives people mad because they want to engage and want to be able to make the changes. People whose homes are heated by oil or gas...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: The most recent retrofit programme the Department rolled out ended up in controversy because, as Mr. Carroll knows, there were people who were not discouraged from making an application - I believe that was the issue - so they applied and then did not get it. What was the average amount of money householders in that particular scheme would have had to contribute to benefit from that deep...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: Just give me the average figure, if Mr. Confrey has it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: What would the householder have had to come up with in terms of capital?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: It would be more than a couple of thousand euro. Define "a couple". It definitely was not €1,000 or €2,000; that is for sure. It was much higher than that, was it not?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: Would it be more than €10,000, on average?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: I think it was because we had the witnesses before the committee. How many people that we represent have that kind of money to spend on deep retrofit? If we are making schemes available to deep retrofit homes, let us not do it for the people with the deepest pockets who can afford to deep retrofit and then have all of the benefits that come from energy efficiency. When carbon taxes...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: With respect, I accept that Mr. Carroll has a job to do. He is coming into this committee and giving us what is the Government and the Department line. Here is the reality. The money is still going into general Government expenditure. There is no hypothecating of any money and there is no ring-fencing. Mr. Carroll can give us many line items that might be in any particular budget and say...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: It was, very slightly. Agriculture, and another area, was up. We have taken €3.3 billion out of people's pockets. It has gone into general Government expenditure. It was not spent on enabling people to make a transition to reduce their carbon footprint. Mr. Carroll is now telling us that will happen with only the surplus of what the increase will be, not the overall figure. What...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: That is the increase. I am talking about the overall figure.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: If we took in €431 million in 2018, it will not be €200 million in a full year.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: I would imagine the figure is over €500 million and up to approximately €520 million. Perhaps the Comptroller and Auditor General would have the figure.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: If we took in €431 million in 2018, and even if it is not a full-year increase, it is probably going to be close to €500 million, say, €460 million or €470 million. Why is that entire amount not ring-fenced for climate action measures if it is so urgent? The Department is telling us there is a climate action plan and that we are going to get better at reaching...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: With all of the challenges, this is €70 million. We are talking about just transition. At an international conference the Taoiseach said that deep retrofitting will cost €50 billion by 2050. We have major problems with public transport in rural Ireland and in all of the regional cities outside of Dublin, such as Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway, and many rural towns and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: Mr. Carroll could tell us that the €500 million, if that is what it is, comprises line items in any part of the Department's spend that it could in any way envisage were green-related, and say it is ring-fencing the entire €500 million. It is nonsense to come in here and say the Department is ring-fencing money when, in reality, it is not. Yes, investments are being made but...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: Hang on a second. This is more of the nonsense. Those people Mr. Carroll is talking about have their homes heated by oil or gas. If an increase is put on their oil or gas, although insulation can be put in their homes and that is fine, they are still using oil and gas, and what the Department is doing is increasing the cost for them. It is not allowing them to transform their home into...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: One second. I know Mr. Carroll is trying to give the response. Does he not hear the madness of that response? The whole logic of increasing the carbon tax, from the Government perspective, is to change people's behaviour. Now, Mr. Carroll is saying it will just increase the fuel allowance, so they do not use any less fuel or any less carbon. That is the madness of this.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Accounts of the Public Services
Chapter 9 - Greenhouse Gas-Related Financial Transactions: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: How will those low income households be reducing their consumption or their carbon footprint if they use oil or gas for heating their homes? We discussed this with the ESRI when it appeared. I ask Mr. Carroll to tell me how low income households will do that. I will leave it at that when I get a response.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (21 Nov 2019)

David Cullinane: 36. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to move beyond the steady State investment level in rail in the national development plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42624/19]