Results 1,501-1,520 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Gas Regulation Bill 2013: From the Seanad (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: No. I can certainly give the assurance he seeks. This is a very calculated and deliberate decision by the Government to establish a water utility in State ownership, and to grow it and maintain it in State ownership in order to deal with some of the acute problems we have in water provision and water wastage. The purpose here is to enable it to get on with its business because key critical...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Perhaps the Deputy should stay more in touch with neighbouring counties.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I have business in the Dáil after Question Time. I apologise to the committee. It is not my regulation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I thank the Chairman and Deputy Colreavy. I appreciate the olive branch on both issues and the Deputy's remarks about Bord Gáis. The Government stated from the outset that under no circumstances would it engage in any kind of bargain-basement disposal of Bord Gáis and that the energy business of Bord Gáis, which is not a strategic consideration in the same sense as the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: That is true.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I cannot agree more with Deputy Coffey. The exciting point about this new technology is that it offers the regions an opportunity for local development that they never had previously. If we can improve the quality of broadband interconnectivity in provincial Ireland, it will stimulate the creation of local employment that has not been possible in the past 100 years of industrial policy. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: No. The report was only seriously engaged in during the summer and will not be published until the end of this year. There will not be any push in the interim until we get that report and member states have had an opportunity to examine it. No primary biofuels are being processed in Ireland and all secondary biofuels are from used cooking oil and tallow. The biggest and most significant...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: There are a number of important questions. The primary motivation behind the digital single market across Europe is not so much focused on the impact on domestic consumers; rather, it is about facilitating continued economic growth within the European Union and removing obstacles to stimulating investment and growth within Europe. It is a matter of enabling Europe to compete with Asia and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Yes. I am in the House with a Bill and I presume colleagues on the committee or at least the spokespersons will want to be in the Chamber as well because we are prosecuting a Bill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers Meeting: Discussion with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I thank the members for the opportunity to appear before the joint committee today to discuss the forthcoming Telecommunications and Energy Councils on 5 and 12 December, respectively. I will start by dealing with the Telecommunications Council. I understand the committee already has a copy of the draft agenda. The Lithuanian Presidency will provide the Council with progress reports on...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Wind Energy Generation (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: In January of this year the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Mr. Edward Davey MP, and I signed a Memorandum of Understanding on energy cooperation. That Memorandum sent a strong signal of our shared interest in developing the opportunity to export green electricity from Ireland to Britain and will result in completion of consideration of how Irish renewable...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Wind Energy Generation (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Ireland has the capability to achieve its national targets for renewable electricity from onshore renewable generation alone, with capacity to spare. This means that, under the co-operation mechanisms outlined in Directive 2009/28/EC, there is potential for projects of scale both onshore and offshore that are aimed at export markets. It is in this context that the United Kingdom Secretary of...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadcasting Sector Regulation (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I propose to take Questions Nos. 132 and 133 together. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is the statutory independent body responsible for regulation of the broadcasting sector, which includes oversight of compliance in relation to broadcast content. The monitoring and enforcement of compliance by broadcasters with the various codes and standards established by the Authority is a...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Departmental Expenditure (27 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: My Department administers a very diverse and complex brief. Its remit includes oversight of very complex policy areas and direct procurement of major services where protection of the State’s interest must be paramount. This situation necessarily requires my Department to procure specialist external professional advice in legal areas to enable it to discharge its responsibility to...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Brian Lenihan senior's great phrase was "the futility of consistency". I beg the Deputy's pardon.

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Bioenergy Strategy Implementation (26 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: I propose to take Questions Nos. 432, 433 and 442 to 444, inclusive, together. Academic and industry research suggest that there is a potentially significant role for biogas and biomethane in meeting our renewable energy requirements, particularly in the challenging heat and transport sectors. Biogas can be utilised to generate electricity, heat or as a transport fuel. Electricity...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Departmental Banking (26 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: My Department does not provide services to the public where payment is accepted by debit or credit card. However, the Geological Service of Ireland, a Division in my Department, operates a bookshop which accepts payment by debit and credit cards but does not charge fees to customers who avail of this facility. I will ask the agencies under the aegis of my Department to supply the requested...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Services Provision (26 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: Ireland’s telecommunications market has been fully liberalised since 1999 in accordance with the requirements of binding EU Directives. The market has since developed into a well-regulated market, supporting a multiplicity of commercial operators, providing services over a diverse range of technology platforms. Details of broadband services available in each County, including Counties...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Electricity Generation (26 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: There are a number of supports currently available for developing or upgrading micro-hydroelectric schemes in Ireland.The primary support mechanism for the support of renewables, including hydropower, is the Renewable Energy Feed-In-Tariff (REFIT) schemes. These schemes were introduced to incentivise the development of renewable electricity generation capacity necessary to allow Ireland to...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: National Broadband Plan Implementation (26 Nov 2013)

Pat Rabbitte: The broadband service contracted under National Broadband Scheme (NBS) is a basic, affordable, scalable product in keeping with EU State Aid clearance for the Scheme in September 2007. Under the terms of the contract which my Department has in place with Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd (trading as “3”), the NBS mobile wireless service currently offers minimum download and upload speeds...