Results 361-380 of 3,553 for speaker:Jennifer Whitmore

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I did not expect to be first up. The Cathaoirleach has taken me by surprise. My first question is to Ms Donnelly in relation to a note in her submission. She raises many concerns in relation to progress being made when it comes to renewable energy and she highlights risks to meeting the targets as a result of that. She also says that she...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: When Ms Donnelly says it is not in short supply is she talking about just wind?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I suppose we have to translate that into a usable energy source and in order to do that we must have construction workers, developers and the infrastructure, and that is limited. Where that is limited, that is the limiting factor. If we have 100 workers and they can produce ten wind farms, are we better off saying we do not want those ten wind farms to be used for growth in data centre...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I have a question for the CRU but I do not know if I have time to ask it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I just read the Dermot McCarthy report. It gives a good history of how we got to the energy security risks that we had. It was clear that those risks were identified as early as 2017 and it was primarily, even back then, identified that the large energy users such as data centres were going to cause problems when it came to energy security risks. One of the roles of the CRU is to ensure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Does Mr. Gannon think the CRU's processes take too long? We even see in quarter 1 of 2023, during the early stages of the energy demand strategy, that the CRU did a consultation. There was a call for evidence and the CRU is now developing a more detailed consultation which it intends to publish in quarter 4 of 2023, with the targeted timeframe decision to be taken in quarter 1 of 2024....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Mr. Ó Donnchú nicely and succinctly defined the National Parks and Wildlife Parks as "Ireland's nature agency". I welcome that short framing of the service. When people hear the words "national parks" they think of areas that are managed for nature. They think of large swathes of protected lands where nature and biodiversity are managed, prioritised and protected. That is not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: From a biodiversity perspective, are there protections within the national parks for nature?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: The new national park is not primarily biodiverse. A large component of it is a working farm. When people hear the words "national park" they think of nature.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: In fact, there are no management plans for any of the national parks. Is that correct? None of them operates a management plan. Nature is not the key priority for them. They are very much a much broader entity.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Does that include the ones that are farmed? A huge proportion of the Wicklow National Park is farmed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I suppose the question is whether there is space to have an overlap of 6 million visitors a year and protect nature. I am of the belief that there needs to be areas that are no-go areas where nature is allowed be. That is where Europe and the nature restoration was going as well. They were talking about highly protected areas. That language might have fallen out of the legislation. Is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: It is highly likely though, if one has disturbance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: As an ecologist, I would say that the likelihood is that if there is large footfall, if people are bringing their dogs in, if people are riding their horses through and if we are not managing deer, the reality, from a scientific perspective, is that any footfall will impact on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: Okay, people bringing their dogs in then.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: On the SACs, I know there was a court decision from Europe that there were not legal protections for 217 out of the 423 SACs we have. I think we are now probably up to 406. Can Mr. Ó Donnchú give us the latest figure on that? How many of the 423 SACs that came in under that court judgment are now covered by legal protections?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: There will be around 20 outstanding.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Whitmore: I was out with a forester in Wicklow recently. He made the point that every forest in the county is moribund. One could not consider it to be growing but rather it is essentially in a state of death because of invasive species and deer. That is the number one challenge there. Obviously we do have some very important sites in Wicklow, including the Glen of the Downs in particular. It is...