Results 1,301-1,320 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: I hear what the Deputy is saying on that. I do not subscribe to the view that every large multinational is a negative influence in this space. Some of them are the most progressive companies on the planet in regard to climate transition. I understand what the Deputy is saying in making sure there is a benchmark with which everybody has to comply, from standards of reporting and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: I know the Deputy is interested in this issues, as are other committee members. We sit on the offshore wind development task force. What happens on that task force is that different Departments are asked to take forward different work streams. Our Department is responsible for supply chain issues and for coming back and inputting into the task force reports in relation to that. I think we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: These is probably not as much space in Cork but very large cranes has been assembled in Cork docklands in the last number of years, which is not that dissimilar to the scale of some of the things that need to be done with offshore wind. Again, that would involve a huge amount of primary investment to create the platforms in the deepwater ports to do that. To outline what I think is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: These are broader questions that I think are partly being answered by the task force. Although the primary focus of the task force is to get these projects up and running in terms of actually putting the infrastructure offshore, there are bigger and broader questions in terms of what does the Irish economy look like in 2030 and 2035, and how are we planning for that now on which I think my...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: My understanding is that there is a task force report due at some stage in the next month but let me check.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: There will be something next month. The report will then go to Cabinet and I presume that it will be brought by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I hope and expect that the report will create an opportunity for the Dáil and Seanad to debate the issue, at that point. I think that it would be good to have an initial report by the task force...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: -----to facilitate 5 GW or 7 GW of power being produced offshore by 2030. This is enormous infrastructure that we are having to put together.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: -----as opposed to making the assumption that energy usage can be solved by erecting a solar panel on a roof. A solar panel may be the solution but not the most efficient spend of money. There is an SME voucher worth €2,000 available to companies to carry out a professional energy audit. The SEAI has a fund of about three quarters of a million euro for the large industry energy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: I want to give the Deputy a flavour of the schemes available.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: There are three or four more schemes. My Department will develop a roadmap with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications for the decarbonisation of commercial buildings. We are committed to doing that before the end of the year. We are in the process of working with that Department to do that. The challenge is identifying where to focus our efforts and money because...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: Is that timber-frame?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: A whole range of things are happening in this space. I was in Trinity College Dublin, TCD, this morning launching a consultation on modern methods of construction. Some 48 people attended from various different elements of the construction sector, from design, to construction, to academia. One of the guest speakers was the advisor to the British Government on modern methods of construction...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: We have to report every year in producing what is effectively a carbon budget to ensure we are meeting the targets we have set for 2023. That will be quite visible and there will be an opportunity for the committee to bring me back to check whether we are meeting the targets we say we are trying to achieve.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: Perhaps you can win Deputy O'Sullivan's seat

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy. I welcome our guest as well. It is good to see you. Your family's restaurant is one of my favourites from childhood and still today. This is a slightly awkward question for me because the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, that effectively manages these grants does not report to my Department. It is linked to another Department but it is a conversation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: There is some support in this space already. There is a support scheme for renewable heat with a grant of up to 30% to support investment in renewable heating systems using heat pumps and an operational support tariff over 15 years for new installations or installations that currently use a fossil fuel heating system and convert to using biomass or an anaerobic digestion heating system.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: Heating is a big expense, especially for hotels. There is also a non-domestic microgeneration scheme, which is another €2 million or so under the SEAI. It provides financial assistance to help businesses and other sectors to install solar PV panels to generate electricity onsite. Grants are available for systems up to a maximum of €2,400 for installation of up to 6 kW hours....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: The relationship between high energy users and grid managers has worked well. We have not had alerts this winter and we are already planning for next winter by bringing new energy generation capacity onto the grid. I believe that in a few years, this will not be a significant issue because considerably more renewable power will both come onshore and be produced on land through solar and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: I will give the Deputy the benefit of the note I have on this. My Department is committed, under action 151 of the climate action plan, to take the steps required to incorporate measures of climate-related impacts into capital grant decisions by the enterprise agencies, predominantly the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. The Department has commenced a pilot project to determine how this might be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan 2023: Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (22 Feb 2023)

Simon Coveney: Yes, I am hopeful it will be, and I think it makes sense. We are trying to build a clean, modern economy. In any event, many of the sectors where the IDA has been successful in recent years are in this space, whether that is technology, medical technology or pharmaceuticals. All these sectors are also trying to change their own systems to decarbonise how they manufacture.