Results 1-20 of 4,184 for speaker:Brian Leddin
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: The purpose of the meeting is to have a discussion on a very important piece of work, Ireland's climate change assessment report. On behalf of the committee, I welcome the witnesses, all of whom are authors of the report. I think we have broken the record for the number of witnesses before the committee today. We have eight witnesses here in person and we are very grateful they have come...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I thank Professor Daly and all who contributed to the opening statement. As agreed, members will have five minutes for their questions. I will allow latitude if I think it is an important line of questioning. Members might indicate if they wish to ask questions, and the clerk will take a list. To begin, I might ask a straightforward question to any and all of the witnesses. It is about...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I thank Dr. Tormey. Now we will hear from Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: Dr. Quinn wishes to contribute.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: What was the name of the survey?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: It reminds me of the National Transport Authority. Perhaps Professor Caulfield will speak to it later. It recently did a survey of the regional cities and in my home city of Limerick, it found 76% of people agreed with reallocating road space in favour of active travel, which is completely contrary to what the media, and certainly social media, would tell us. This kind of research is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I thank Dr. Deane. I will not use any more of the committee's time but the idea has been suggested to the committee before - I do not know whether the witnesses worked on it - of a future generations commission, which other countries have established to look at the long-term benefits, how we shape our society in a few decades' time and the necessary action to tackle climate change. If anyone...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I thank Deputy Whitmore. Did Professor Daly indicate that she wishes to speak?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: Yes, of course.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I wish to come in on this idea that we need to provide the public transport before we apply the stick. Is that not a very dangerous message? There is public transport that people can use but they are not using. If we say that we are not going to do all these really hard things until we have these ideal public transport systems, we are never going to get there.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: That is a very important point; the idealised system, or even a better system, cannot actually be provided unless the stick is applied. It is simply not possible to get this excellent public transport because of limited street space for the different modes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I counter that the buses are unreliable because they are stuck in the traffic and the lanes are not allocated for the buses.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: Of course, there is a reliability issue. The principal point I am making is that these excellent systems cannot be produced unless some really difficult policies are applied. It is an either-or. It is about, certainly in the urban areas, how we allocate the limited space that we have. Anyway, we will have this debate outside of here, for sure.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: We would certainly appreciate it. What is the name of the researcher?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I thank Dr. Torney.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: Just before I bring in Dr. Heaphy on the question of shared cars, if one shared vehicle displaces ten privately-owned vehicles, does it also have a similar impact on the number of kilometres driven and, therefore, the emissions associated with the ten vehicles?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: Perhaps we politicians can come up with a rule of thumb.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: On the cause and message being so important, and on Professor Daly's point about selling the good stories or even the personal stories of people who have been adversely affected by climate change, we are ahead of target on retrofitting and electric vehicle numbers. If we wanted to do more, we could not do so because we are maxed out in terms of retrofitting homes and providing electric...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: I thank Dr. Moriarty. We will certainly look at Volume 4 and the detail in it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)
Brian Leddin: The advertising piece was mentioned by Deputy Murphy and it is probably not something our witnesses touched in their research. It is something our committee is starting to look at and we have done some work on it as a committee but we will be going back to it in the near future. Does anyone want to comment? I invite Professor Daly to speak?