Results 21-40 of 213 for long speaker:Darren O'Rourke

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Financial Resolution No. 1: Mineral Oil Tax (10 Oct 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I support the Sinn Féin amendment. This hike in carbon tax is a deeply regressive move. The Government has played with words and spun very significantly about the carbon tax for far too long. We need to state clearly that it is just the increases and not all of the carbon taxes that are ring-fenced. Therefore, a very significant amount of carbon tax that is raised goes into the...

Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (27 Sep 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...Fine Gael seemed to have missed this point. We do not even have a full picture of the scale of the problem and the range of policy options available to address it. The Government has been promising to publish the long-awaited and much-delayed security of supply review in the next few weeks for more than six months. The McCarthy report, conspicuously, is also yet to be published. The...

Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) (Cap on Market Revenues) Bill 2023: Second Stage (21 Sep 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...and, I am sure, colleagues in the Houses too. I am pleased to finally have the opportunity to speak on this legislation and that it has been introduced. It is incredible that it has taken this long to get us here. The delay would be unacceptable in normal circumstances but in the context of today's surging and enduring cost-of-living crisis, it is shocking. As it stands, Ireland has...

Progress on the National Parks and Wildlife Service: Statements (6 Jul 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...forward together. This is eminently possible but will only happen if we are all determined to achieve it. While it is important to welcome progress, it is equally important to recognise there is still a long way to go. This was made abundantly clear in the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which concluded that the State has comprehensively failed to adequately...

Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) (Temporary Solidarity Contribution) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...the TSC is due from 23 September to 28 July in 2023 in amendment No. 1 and 2024 in amendment No. 2. This is because people need urgent relief, and they need it now. The Government and the energy companies have had long enough, and it is high time that we got this system up and running. This is an appropriate and reasonable proposition. Businesses will already have completed their annual...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Toll Increases and Ongoing Projects: Discussion with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (28 Jun 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...gone back to TII and TII has gone to the Minister. What was the request from the council? What did it look for? I think it was to advance the project. When did TII write to the Minister and how long has it been waiting for a response or has it received one?

Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) (Temporary Solidarity Contribution) Bill 2023: Second Stage (27 Jun 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...significantly reduce the proportion of their eye-watering super-profits that can be targeted? I remind him that these profits were made on the back of war in Europe and the pandemic, both of which took place alongside a cost-of-living crisis. Will he explain the justification for this? Is this not simply a continuation of business as usual in the energy sector? It is hardly surprising...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Electricity Grid (15 Jun 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: The Minister has spoken about private wires, the storage policy framework and the hydrogen strategy. The private wires consultation has been a long time coming. It could not happen quickly enough. In his first supplementary response, will the Minister address the capacity and resourcing of EirGrid as a vehicle to deliver on this ambition in the first instance? I regularly meet...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (13 Jun 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage report Safe as Houses, and to assist owners of latent defect properties by identifying options for those impacted by defects, to access low-cost, long-term finance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28029/23]

Biodiversity Action: Statements (25 May 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ..., we need to track what is going wrong and where, and, we hope, where things are getting better. The Government either acted in ways that were grossly incompetent or, even worse, purposefully obstructive. Either way, it is not good enough and it goes a long way to explaining why we are in the middle of an emergency now. The overwhelming message of the assembly report is that the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (16 May 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: 598. To ask the Minister for Health the criteria applied to the long-term illness scheme; if Addison's disease will be included in the scheme; if the scheme or other schemes will be extended to support people with the financial cost of coping with life-long chronic conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22363/23]

Support for Household Energy Bills: Motion [Private Members] (3 May 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I thank everyone who contributed to the debate. I will come back on a number of points but it is clear from the debate and listening to the Government's response and reading its extensive and long countermotion, that it has not done enough to protect consumers, to rein in energy companies, and to ensure fair practice within the energy sector here. That failure is not measured in statistics...

Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Apr 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...state of much of the infrastructure, particularly in regard to the works by the Office of Public Works, OPW around the graveyard wall which has been ongoing for almost a decade at this stage. We now have a long-awaited conservation management plan that has a number of important objectives which need significant cross-agency effort and energy. I support the plan. I have concerns that...

Environmental Protection Agency (Emergency Electricity Generation) (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Mar 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...the said exceptional circumstances and urgent and compelling necessity”. There is concern in this regard. We have the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, but we do not have it that long. That terminology, though, provides too much scope and room for the Minister or a Minister to move away from the provisions of the Act. I therefore support this amendment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Aviation Policy (Resumed): Regional Airports (15 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: I thank the witnesses. I was happy to listen to all of the contributions and the debate over the past two and a half hours or however long we have been here. Understandably, there was interest from colleagues from the regions. As transport spokesperson for my party, it is important to have this opportunity. It is part of an extended series of meetings that we have done with a range of...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Vote 31 - Transport (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...a very real evidence base in an Irish context. Will the Minister push for the fare reductions to remain in place? On the national development plan, very many projects have been included on the long list of the NDP. Will the Minister review the overall budget envelope for the NDP out to 2023? I ask because it strikes me that the projects in the pipeline are getting more expensive by...

Forestry Strategy: Statements (26 Jan 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...will be a key tool to understanding the climate change impact of the forest sector and to informing decisions on future land use planning, 4. Increasing the use of wood and wood products, both as a long-term store of carbon and as a substitute to using more carbon intensive products are key ways that forests can contribute to meeting our climate targets. 5. There is a preference [among...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Car Test (19 Jan 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: 1. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the engagement that he has had to date with the operators of the National Car Test Service, NCTS, regarding long wait times for tests and proposed changes to work practices; when backlogs will be addressed; if he has met with trade unions in relation to the concerns of workers in the NCTS; and if he will make a statement on the matter....

Oil Emergency Contingency and Transfer of Renewable Transport Fuels Functions Bill 2023: Second Stage (18 Jan 2023)

Darren O'Rourke: ...through the Dáil and did not undergo any prelegislative scrutiny. In addition, both electricity credit Bills were brought through the Houses at speed. The Minister seems to be setting aside long-standing parliamentary process and scrutiny and ramming through legislation that has undergone very little prior examination by Deputies and Senators. An absence of prelegislative scrutiny...