Results 1-20 of 32,045 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 May 2024)

Richard Bruton: From the work that I am doing with the Fine Gael policy lab, it is very clear that we need a new vision and a step-change in realising the potential we have from longer lives. To be fair to past strategies and current work, they are trying to break new ground. The real problem is the weakness in implementation across policy silos of Departments. Would the Taoiseach consider leadership in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: 88. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on the unmet need for childcare places, the uptake of the new capital scheme which he has published and his future plans for the sector. [19053/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: 87. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will outline the work carried out to date on the establishment of the childcare development agency; and if he will set out the milestones remaining to its full establishment. [19054/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: I welcome the work the Minister of State has undertaken since the passage of the Act. I must say, however, that his Department continues to view the circular economy through the very narrow lens of waste and levies on waste materials. That is evidenced in his own presentation but also in the plan which he recently presented, where the ambition is zero growth in waste per head of population...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Where is the strategy for that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Two years ago we were talking about this Bill that became an Act. We were talking about the EPA. These are the very same things that we are talking about and I worry the scope to do something different is on a long lead. We need to nail down dates for each of these elements. If you go into a building site today, the smaller building sites are not separating their material. Everything is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Does the Minister of State want to comment on green procurement?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: As the Minister of State certainly knows, the practice has been that it is the procurers who decide what it is they are procuring and they create the need for the framework. If they do not embed the need for green principles, it will not make it into the framework and they will not be found to be non-compliant because it was not specified in the first place. The view has always been that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Will the Minister of State or someone in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform let us know our baseline, say, in 2023 or whatever it was before this started and how we are progressing? Will there be some measures that will show us that information? I do not imagine than an awful lot of textiles are being procured, and maybe there are in...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: 233. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will review the apparent obligation on a care centre to become a registered charity in order to get tax relief for the use of a wheelchair bus, used to transport persons who themselves have primary certificates establishing their severe disability; and if he will devise a simpler route of access to this tax relief. [19040/24]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: General Register Office (30 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: 434. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she is aware that the research room for the general records is now only open one day a week, down from five, which is considerably hampering research; and if she will consider arrangements to make it more accessible. [19415/24]

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Will the Minister convene a group to develop a circular economy strategy for the food sector? The climate committee will be starting to consider that issue. The facts are there. The Minister will know well that food waste is over 1 million tonnes and accounts for 5% of our global emissions. Half of compostable waste does not find its way to compostable outlets. Excess packaging in the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: First, I welcome what the Minister of State has said, but so long as there is no clear picture of what a revenue stream from sound environmental farming will mean in ten or 20 years' time, this uncertainty and unease will continue. We know, for example, that raising water levels on certain lands has huge carbon dividends. We know that benchmarking and reducing emissions by sequestration or...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Is it not the case that if we are to see a significant scaling-up of activity, and I think that is necessary, there are going to have to be substantial rewards linked to them? Surely, on a no-regrets basis, we should be making those substantial rewards available so that a step change can be considered by people who want a long-term commercial and prosperous family future. We need to take a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: 61. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline the potential of a carbon farming initiative in the transformation of the sustainability profile of the farming sector. [18080/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: The Minister knows that farmers worry that their transition to a sustainable model of farming will not sustain prosperous family farms into the long term. There are many in this House and outside it who want to fan the fears of farmers. I believe a clear pathway to a carbon farming approach could reassure many farmers. To date, the detail in that regard is scanty, which creates uncertainty.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: 16. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has considered the scope for promoting engaging activities and positive health measures as a part of the welfare programmes promoted by her Department to the pensioners whom she supports with regular financial payments and occasional urgent need payments as part of a more joined-up approach to positive ageing. [18076/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: The Minister's Department probably has the most extensive network connecting to people who have left the workforce. We know that staying connected and active is the key to the well-being of people have left the workforce. Will the Minister consider the opportunity she has for promoting engaging activities among people who have left the workforce because it is a huge gulf?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: The Minister will have often heard the phrase "a stitch in time saves nine". Does the Minister agree that setting up a commission on care is already too late in the cycle? The reality is that if people stay connected and active after they retire, they will have many years of good health and not come into the caring system at all. As Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan just asked about, the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Programmes (25 Apr 2024)

Richard Bruton: Activation is not just about work; it can be in someone's community doing all sorts of things.