Results 12,581-12,600 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: That is part of the budgetary process. My general assessment is that one of the key projects for this Department and this Government is the scientific assessment that will underpin our land use plan. Critical to that is the issue of water quality and biodiversity levels within our rivers, lakes and marine areas, particularly as part of the land use plan. In that regard, the work of Inland...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: What we learn through ecology is that everything is connected. There is a connection in the marine. One of the biggest challenges with salmon as a species is what is happening in far distant waters off Greenland where the salmon go for their feeding and development before they return and those changes and everything that happens on the way, be it a fish farm with the whole issue of sea lice...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I will again go local and refer to the Senator's own city. The River Corrib is one of the great rivers and Lough Corrib is one of the great lakes. It is more of a trout lake than a salmon lake but the River Corrib is open. Some 4,139 tags may be issued, just to give an indication of numbers. You will see fishermen at the site by Salmon Weir Bridge. They are there for a reason. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: Could the Deputy remind me of the river in Clonakilty? I have my list of rivers here. I always think it is great to go local in terms of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I do not think it is on my list. It is the River Ilen that flows through Skibbereen, is it not? That is open. There are 817 tags allowed on that river while 708 are allowed for the River Bandon. I will be honest; when I saw some of those flood protection works, particularly those in Bandon and Skibbereen, I wondered how fish would ever come back up again. There was a very significant...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It was just incredible. I will go local and again mention the weir at Clonskeagh in my own area. Flood protection works have just been carried out there. We were talking about different agencies with different responsibilities. This is an OPW issue. I look at the scale of the change to the local environment and I fear that some of our flood protection works are overengineered, do not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I would not rule anything out. It is difficult, however. I had a discussion recently with representatives of the OPW regarding who has responsibility for flood protection on the railway line in Clare. The Chair will remember this topic. I made the point that the organisation is responsible for flood protection, but we would work with it to ensure when designing flood protection that we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: There is, and Mr. Maher may wish to give details in that regard. A memorandum of understanding, MOU, has been worked out between the IFI and the OPW in places such as Bandon, because they must work together and they do. It is not a case of one State agency being right or wrong. The OPW benefits from listening to the IFI.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: The draft nets are different because there is no issue with by-catch and they are river-specific. They are used within the estuarine and river system, so there is not the same risk as I mentioned regarding drift netting at sea, which is indiscriminate. I will certainly seek to get that memorandum of understanding, even if it is only an example of what can be done on the River Bandon,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: No, sorry, the fish farming licences are issued by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and they are not included in this system.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: That will be part of the paper in the context of examining the management of this system and exploring if there are issues with draft net licensing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: It is a real issue. As it happens, I was just talking to my officials earlier today and said that what I would like to do is to visit both locations. There is nothing better than seeing at first hand what is happening on the ground in the presence of our fish scientists and representatives from the ESB. The Shannon system, in particular, is a large facility with a major disruptive effect...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: The River Feale and the River Mulkear in Limerick are both catch and release areas, so there is hope. The numbers, however, are significantly below optimum, so fishing must be on a catch and release basis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I will give the Deputy an update on the status of the stocks, particularly salmon stocks. They seemed to be relatively steady, if not showing a slight improvement, in the last five years. The number of rivers open to catching where there is a total allowable catch set and conservation limits went from 44 to 48 between 2017 and 2021. The number on catch and release has gone from 27 to 32...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communictions (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: May I give the wider assessment of the past ten years? We were at a crisis stage 15 years ago. If I recall correctly, Noel Dempsey was Minister at the time. We were at a crisis point and still had drift netting at sea. The issue of drift netting was critical because such netting is indiscriminate. If you had a drift net off either the west or east coast to catch salmon coming down, you...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Renewable Energy Generation (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: My Department is developing Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auctions both for onshore and offshore renewables. The public consultation on the draft terms and conditions of the next onshore auction, RESS 2, received 61 submissions. Following consideration of these submissions, final terms and conditions for this auction were approved by Government and published on my...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Air Quality (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 216 and 217 together. A public consultation on a Clean Air Strategy was undertaken in 2017 and some 116 submissions were received, which informed the development of a subsequent draft of the Strategy. Given the significant progress that has been made since then in improving our ambient air monitoring programme, the extension of low smoke zones, and...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Change Policy (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 218 to 220, inclusive, together. Mr. Kieran Mulvey was appointed as Just Transition Commissioner by the Government in November 2019 with the mandate to engage with those affected by the accelerated exit from peat for electricity generation in the Midlands region, and to recommend to Government the essential elements of a just transition for those workers...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Change Policy (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: The Government remains committed to a just transition in the Midlands region and has dedicated significant funding to supporting workers, companies and communities affected by the closure of the peat-fired power stations and the end of peat extraction by Bord na Móna. To date, my Department has finalised grant agreements with 54 Just Transition Fund projects. The total value of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Change Policy (1 Feb 2022)

Eamon Ryan: The EU Just Transition Fund is a newly established fund for the 2021-2027 period, operating within the framework of EU cohesion policy. The Just Transition Fund seeks to address the adverse effects of the climate transition by supporting the most affected territories and workers concerned and to promote a balanced socio-economic transition. Ireland must prepare a Territorial Just...