Results 41-60 of 10,966 for speaker:Anne Rabbitte

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Minister, Minister of State and officials for attending the committee. I am coming off a high of good news, given that just last week, we managed to open the courthouse in Portumna with a significant investment of €2.9 million from the Department. It is important to point out that it was delivered on time and within budget. That was down to the collaboration between the...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: Sorry for coming in to ask more questions but I love the Ministers' Department, I must admit. I will focus on CLÁR. I commend the Ministers' putting another tranche of funding there. The €100,000 for particular programmes in two municipal areas is welcome. I would love to see a focus on the likes of Changing Places. Would you believe we have only six Changing Places in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank both groups for being with us this afternoon. Coming from the west, I acknowledge all the work the witnesses' organisations did during Storm Éowyn. However, people living in Dunmore in County Galway, which is just 40 miles north of where I live, had to wait for 41 days for their connection back to the ESB. They felt very forgotten about. What plans are in place in the event of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: In that vein, regarding the upgrade of the network, one has to look at another aspect of rural Ireland, which is trees. Will a mechanism or plan be put in place to assist in that regard? From talking to the local authorities, they do not have the money to cut trees. At the same time, if we have trees too close to the overhead lines, it is a huge issue. Has a proposal gone to Government or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: My next question relates to the grid. In the past three months, how close have we gone to the blackout stage or having to use our gas plants? How many times in the last three months has the ESB had to turn on the switchgear generators and use our reserves because we were in the black?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: Maybe I should come at it from another way. Did ESB Networks get many phone calls in the last three months indicating that the supply was at a tight line?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: I come from Portumna where we have the Coolpowra transmission site. We also have one in Cashla in Athenry. We have such a dearth of energy, which I totally understand. I am trying, for our community, to understand how many times switchgear energy has been used. What is the need? When you are building a 440 kVA generator in the likes of Portumna and it has to transmit enough power for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: How many times has ESB Networks hit red in the last three months? How many times has ESB Networks got the phone call?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: When was the last time the ESB had an official alert? Has there been one in the past six months?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: That is understandable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: I will focus on Irish Water. I thank the delegates for appearing before us. There are 800 developer-provided wastewater treatment plants, the cost of which could be between €500 million and €1 billion. Is the plan to deal with these before other developer-led wastewater treatment plants? Alternatively, is the plan to deal with both kinds in tandem?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: That is good. What stage are we at with the developer on-site package? We develop systems in Galway and in this regard we have a good provider in Coffey’s. Where are we on saying we have a design, plan and package such that a developer can say it can provide facilities until such time as Uisce Éireann rolls into town?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: I hear what Mr. Gleeson is saying but that is through the planning process. If people want to object to houses, they can object, but we have built-in the wastewater treatment as part of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: What is the timeline for getting to the end of that process?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: No. What is the timeline?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: So, Uisce Éireann has no timeline for us to get to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: No, but at the same time,-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: -----Uisce Éireann is part of a collective. I want to know whether there is-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)

Anne Rabbitte: If Mr. Gleeson came from east Galway, as the Senator here beside me and I do, there is the capacity for eight in Gort. That is all of south Galway that does not have any capacity.