Results 15,521-15,540 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Electric Vehicles (19 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Officials from my Department are participating in a working group led by the Local Authorities which is considering guidelines on EV charging. Work is ongoing and recommendations will be published in due course. Home charging is a key component of the EV infrastructure policy. It is the most convenient and cost effective way of recharging for the EV owner and is considered the least expensive...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Pension Provisions (19 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 73, 75 and 77 together. As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport in Ireland. The CIÉ Group has two pension schemes, namely the Regular Wages Scheme (“RWS”) and 1951 superannuation scheme (“1951 Scheme”) and issues in relation to CIÉ pension schemes are...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (19 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I recognise that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on small businesses across the country with the public transport sector being especially affected as public health restrictions have necessarily discouraged people from travelling generally. Taxi and other small public service vehicle (SPSV) operators, who are particularly dependent on the hospitality and tourism sectors, have faced a...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Licences (19 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The regulation of the small public service vehicle (SPSV) sector, including SPSV licensing, is a matter for the National Transport Authority (NTA) under the provisions of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013. Given the role of the NTA as regulator, I have referred your question to the Authority for direct reply to you. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within 10 working...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Proposed Legislation (19 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: My intention is to legislate for e-scooters in accordance with the Programme for Government this year. This involves identifying and developing appropriate amendments to primary legislation across a range of complex areas. The work is being carried out in such a way so that it does not undermine the overall framework of Road Traffic law or road safety in general. Department officials are...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Implementation of the capacity review will primarily be a responsibility for our Department. I take its advice about what can be published. My instinct is to be as transparent as possible. The National Cyber Security Centre shares a substantial amount of information, often in a secure way, giving different levels of transparency depending on security implications, so we will follow the...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: Deputy Connolly is entitled to ask questions. That is why we are here tonight. It is important that we have that capability and also that we try to achieve common purpose as we address what is still a critical situation. For those patients in Galway, and for that reason, we have to be careful here in what we say. Various Members, including Deputy O'Donnell, have said they were not able to...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I thank the Deputy for his words. I share his view that the real concern is for the patients in our health system. He is absolutely right to focus on their needs at this moment. They should be reassured that there is no shortage of resources, international or local. There is a lot of expertise in this area in the country. Many of the companies and others with that expertise have offered...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: To back that up, the key is that it has to be an international response. The response in this case included other governments providing us with examples of the same malware and what they did to protect against it. That is the way this works. It is a global phenomenon and problem. The nature of the Internet is that it that connected network. A key thing coming out of this incident is...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: To clarify, the budget did triple in the last budget and that was the non-pay element. However, over the last five years, there has been a consistent increase in both capacity and resources. As I said earlier, in my experience of dealing with the NCSC, and I and the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, had a very extensive briefing three weeks ago, its operations and capabilities are very...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: As in all Departments, the senior Minister has overall responsibility. I was very glad in recent weeks to be able to appoint Deputy Smyth as Minister of State with specific responsibility for communications and the circular economy. I was particularly interested and glad to have that because he also has a similar role in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, where he has...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The first response was about 6.30 a.m. and the incident had occurred about 2.30 a.m or 3 a.m. The NCSC and the Department of the Taoiseach were involved at the very early stage at about 6.30 a.m. We then had further meetings from 9 o'clock that morning and every element of the State was involved. It was first thing Friday morning, as soon as we became aware of the incident.

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: To back up what the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, said earlier, we very much look forward to the Department and other officials being able to answer a lot of those questions in the course of time, when this immediate emergency response to the incident has passed. I am confident that the capacity review mentioned by the Minister of State will give us a very clear indication of the...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: It is critical and highly capable, but I would still argue that the key capability for the front-line defence is in the Departments. The NCSC has a key role in advising, helping and providing analysis, but I stand by the argument as I believe it is fundamentally true that the first line of defence is the various Departments and their resources. That is where we have to concentrate. In...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The staff provision is 29. The funding is closer to €7 million, not €5 million, including non-pay items. That amount tripled in this year's budget, reflecting the priority this Government gives it. We have a top quality team. I cannot say enough about the skills and public service they provide. However, they are not alone. The key resource in the State, which it is the...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: We have to be careful not to speculate. We can only know the full details and full diagnosis of what happened after the extensive research the NCSC, the Department of Health and the international contractors do. It is likely the hackers were not just in the HSE on that particular day, but had spent a period of time in the system. These attacks are prepared in detail and at length in...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: There is a clear recognition in Government and in this House of the importance of cybersecurity in all our lives. It is our lives that are affected when a breach like this occurs. The changes to reflect that have been significant in recent years. The last time I was Minister with responsibility for communications, ten years ago, there was one person effectively working part time on the...

Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: My Department hosts the National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC, which was established by Government decision. It is the central cybersecurity incident response unit for the State, with a broad remit across the cybersecurity of government ICT and critical national infrastructure. The NCSC acts as a central contact point in the event of a government or nationwide cybersecurity incident...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Grant Payments (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: The Just Transition Fund's objective is to fund innovative projects that contribute to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the Wider Midlands region and which have employment and enterprise potential.The Department held a competitive call for applications to this Fund, which closed on 17 July 2020, in response to which over 100 applications were received. 16 'Strand 1'...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Climate Action Plan (18 May 2021)

Eamon Ryan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 192 and 193 together. The 2009 Effort Sharing Decision 406/2009/EC (ESD) sets annual binding emissions reduction targets for EU Member States for the period 2013 to 2020. These targets cover emissions from sectors outside of the EU Emissions Trading System, such as agriculture, transport, buildings and waste. For the year 2020 itself, the target set...