Results 1,141-1,160 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Other Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: For the umpteenth time, I wish to state that this is a misrepresentation as well. I was replying to a flurry of cross-examination about why I did not spell out our policy then on child benefit rather than simply stating in an advertisement. I said, "Isn't that what you do during an election?", meaning simply as stated. You do not get a chance to write an essay when campaigning on a radio show.

Other Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: Deputy Boyd Barrett is not exactly a novice himself. He has spent a lifetime in training for the platform he now has.

Other Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: There may be genuine misunderstanding on my part, or between us, because I do not see where Deputy Murphy is going. I am doing exactly what she is asking me to do. Within the next four weeks I will be publishing the sectoral plan. She is free to criticise it then, and if she praises it, I will have to go and lie down in a dark room for some time.

Other Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: However, let us wait until she sees it. When it is published, she can criticise it. In terms of the Aarhus Convention, nobody can say this country suffers from a lack of consultation.

Other Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I do not dispute we have made mistakes in the past - of course, that goes without saying. However, I hope we have learned a lot of lessons as well. In terms of the conflict ongoing at the moment, I have always said that the litmus test of the consultation process would be the character of response. One arranges to respond positively to the concerns raised by people, and there is still a...

Other Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: Good morning, Deputy McGrath. I hope that, as he told me, the people of Marino, Raheny and Clontarf are still welcoming my legislative proposals. I am very pleased about that. In response to Deputy Colreavy, the Taoiseach's reference to the programme of work is a reference to EirGrid's programme of work. I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 11, 13, 18 and 122 together. EirGrid’s...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: -----on subjects on which they do not bother to inform themselves. They do not have to take any responsibility. If one does have to take responsibility for something it has to be done patiently and with great care. Deputy Colreavy knows that I cannot stop anybody buying land from anybody else in Ireland. My fellow county man attempted to collectivise the land in the eighteenth century....

Other Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I welcome the publication last week by the European Commission of its Communication on Blue Energy, which specifically deals with wave and tidal energy technologies. The communication gives a very clear assessment of the enormous potential of ocean energy, identifying the Atlantic seaboard as the area of highest potential in the EU. The communication also highlights the importance for EU...

Other Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I made the point earlier that our system of government does not place any responsibility for policy-making on Opposition Deputies and God knows I was one for long enough. It is equally true that it is a feature of Irish policy-making that as soon as a great idea about developing renewable energy from onshore wind farms, for example, begins to become a reality its earlier proponents start to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: In the first instance, it is important to state the paper published by the European Union last week does not in any way scale back on the 2020 targets. The 2020 targets remain extant across Europe and Ireland is still required to meet its target of 40% of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020. Anything the European Union announced last week in respect of events post 2020 does...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: One of these days, Deputy Colreavy must tell me where he stands on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. If we are to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and if we are to move towards decarbonisation of the electricity system, we must then reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and must use more renewable sources. I repeat for the tenth time this morning, that the improvement to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wind Energy Generation (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I agree entirely with Deputy Colreavy that if we are to open a new traded sector in green energy, the benefit must redound to the Irish nation. I could not agree more and that is what I have been explaining since I got on my feet this morning. This is the reason painstaking attention must be devoted to negotiating an intergovernmental agreement because unless there is benefit to Ireland,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: We do not need it ourselves. If there was a question of domestic need, that would come first. We have capacity to generate more than what we need domestically. If we can find a market in which to sell the excess, why should we not open a new trade sector in green energy? The process has not been under way for three years. I said in my formal reply that the memorandum was signed last...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation Issues (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: EirGrid is the transmission system operator, TSO, for the electricity transmission system in Ireland. The functions of the TSO are set out in SI 445 of 2000 and include the operation of a safe, secure, reliable, economical and efficient electricity transmission system with a view to ensuring that all reasonable demands for electricity are met, having due regard for the environment. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation Issues (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: The Deputy raised a very complex, technical question that I have struggled with for quite some time in an effort to understand the matter. It essentially concerns the capacity of the system to accommodate renewables generally, and wind energy in particular. The transmission system operator, EirGrid, is very highly regarded not only in Ireland, but also internationally in terms of its...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Generation Issues (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: It is not a question of technical capacity only. Undergrounding is possible but it is much more expensive. Deputy Colreavy's party leader said yesterday that the norm internationally is to put cables underground. The international norm is that 1.5% of transmission cables are underground, including in economies that are far wealthier than ours. While the issue is cost, there also can be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Electricity Transmission Network (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: I most emphatically did not refer to the people expressing concerns as being in the category to which Deputy Higgins refers when I said there are some people who are never happy unless they are unhappy. I was referring to Deputy Higgins and people who think like him who dismiss out of hand the fact a measure has been born out of the public consultation process and is designed to respond to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: In January of 2013, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Mr. Edward Davey MP, and I signed a memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation. That memorandum sent a strong signal of our shared interest in developing the opportunity to export green energy from Ireland to Britain and will result in completion of consideration of how Irish renewable energy resources,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: It certainly cannot be the case that, on the one hand, we are building out and improving the grid, which has no relationship to the wind export project about which people are complaining, and on the other hand that the transmission system for the wind export project can never be connected to the Irish grid. It is one or the other. I say again, for the umpteenth time, that if there is not an...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Renewable Energy Exports (30 Jan 2014)

Pat Rabbitte: It is an entirely separate technology. The technology that will connect the wind export project to the British grid, if it goes ahead, is a sub-sea cable and an underground cable to wherever the electricity is being generated.