Results 1,741-1,760 of 8,196 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: ----moving away from gas. We have been behind on two areas. I would like a note on gas. Why are we still having new private and domestic gas connections?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We are putting that on top of all of those gas-powered facilities we have agreed to in the past two years, however.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have just three questions and maybe one short comment which was a kind of a question I had asked the last time. A huge subsidisation has been made from 2010, a permanent rebalancing. During the 2021 consultation on a potential moratorium for large energy users when the public had their chance to give their views on large energy users, why was the relevant information not given to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We have heard a lot about the decarbonisation and the potential for green hydrogen down the line. We may look at certain limited uses for green hydrogen in particular targeted areas. Decarbonisation is one part, but we should be reducing reliance on gas and exiting from it. The gas sector as a whole should be shrinking. Even if green hydrogen comes on stream the general advice...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: With absolute respect, I would suggest this is an area where CRU is very much behind the curve again. In two years' time we will probably hear that we should have done more about reducing reliance on gas, which is what we have had on each of these issues. They have all been well flagged. We are losing two to three years and we do not have many years. We have about ten years to get to our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I asked two other questions on standing charges and smart meters.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes. Is it not essential that the standard charges be addressed? Otherwise, the benefits from schemes will be reduced significantly. We have heard a great deal about the advertising of smart meters and my other question related to people who wanted to remove a smart meter. What are their options? That standing charges can increase in an unregulated way is undermining the uptake of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes. I am not being reassured that people can choose to move away from having their information transmitted. People may sign up and later decide that they do not want to continue with that system. Under GDPR, it does not seem proportionate to require half-hourly information to be transmitted. I hope people engage and believe people are engaging in energy-efficiency practices but there is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: So, having no credit record is not a barrier?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (31 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The programme for Government already existed at that point. Our guests have talked about demand growth. We are hearing demand reduction mentioned. The witnesses mentioned legislation. Do they have any further written notes on legislation anticipated in one of the areas of the commission's work plan for 2023? There has also been a lot of talk about demand growth and how that growth will...

Seanad: Wind Energy: Statements (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister to the House. I was going to begin by outlining the broader context of the discussion in terms of the urgency of the transition that is needed. The sixth interim assessment report from the third working group of the IPCC, published last April, made it very clear that there is no space for continuing with fossil fuel expansion or the continuation of fossil fuel...

Seanad: Wind Energy: Statements (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----as well as substituting wind energy and accelerating our full exit from fossil fuels and fossil fuel dependence. The deployment of renewables for large energy users alone, Professor Daly noted, is unlikely to prevent scenarios such as gas lock-in or to ensure we do not breach our sectoral emissions ceilings. She points again to the need for mitigating measures around demand reduction....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will follow up on a couple of points that were flagged earlier. One that I was a little concerned about was with regard to digital finance and cryptocurrencies. In his reply to one of the other members, Mr. Makhlouf spoke about the need to support innovation. Looking again at the mandate of the Central Bank, however, it does not have a mandate in innovation or supporting industry. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes. I wish to follow up on a few matters. First, that did not really answer my question as to what the input has been in respect of that European regulatory development. I am aware that the Central Bank supports the Department. The mandate of the Central Bank is to contribute to the development of sound rules in respect of the European regulatory process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Since the Central Bank is supporting the Department in that trilogue process, I am seeking to discover what Ireland has been bringing to the negotiations. I am very concerned there may be a bit of a divide and conquer in that we have heard a lot of talk about crypto not being appropriate for retail customers. The point is, however, that in the last crash, it was not retail customers who...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have two further questions-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----and I have waited a considerable amount of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I can ask my two questions and get the answers to all three if the Chair so wishes

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Certainly. My other questions-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Economic Issues: Engagement with Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (25 Jan 2023)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----relate to two other areas. Quite a short answer could be given to the first of them. We saw the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, speak recently about the fact, on which the witnesses themselves have commented, that monetary policy is now tightening in that money is more expensive. One of the things he said was that this is impacting on mortgage holders, businesses and the Government....