Results 1-20 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Telecommunications Services (23 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Ireland's Digital Connectivity Strategy, published by my Department, sets ambitious targets, which include providing a Gigabit network to all households and businesses in Ireland by 2028 and access to 5G in all populated areas by 2030. The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland. National Broadband...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Infrastructure (22 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland. The premises in question is in the BLUE area on the broadband map. The BLUE area represents those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high-speed broadband services. The Department defines high-speed...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Departmental Data (22 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Uptake of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) has been very positive to date and, since launch on 1 February, almost 615 million bottles and cans have been returned, with average daily rates now regularly exceeding 3 million containers. This equates to €106 million in deposits refunded to consumers, averaging just over €0.5 million per day. As with most waste statistics,...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Infrastructure (17 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the government's initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland. The mapping consultation between fixed line operators and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications was concluded in 2019. As part of this mapping consultation the three large, fixed line operators (open eir, Virgin Media and Siro) were...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Chair and the committee for this opportunity to present details of this Supplementary Estimate for my Department. This Supplementary Estimate is required to provide additional funding of €30 million for the national broadband plan because it will exceed its planned delivery for this year. Other elements of the Supplementary Estimate include: funding of €520 million...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: They are people who have subscribed to the service. About 10,000 homes are passed with fibre, so the fibre is going pass the kerbs outside those homes. The 4,200 homes are actually subscribing. The numbers will keep increasing. We expect that eventually 80% of people in rural Ireland will subscribe to the service.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Deputy O'Rourke and I and Deputy Ó Murchú have worked together through ups and downs on this project over the past number of years. Deputy O'Rourke will remember that during the pandemic there were delays to the project. It eventually looked as though it would be eight months delayed compared with its original schedule. The project was signed in December 2019 and the contract...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Per month.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The country has been divided up into two areas: the intervention area where NBI operates and the non-intervention area, which is the urban areas which are commercially viable. We got approval from the European Commission to have NBI operate and be subsidised within the intervention area. If a person is not in that area, the NBI is not going to reach them. The NBI has to provide 100%; it...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: For an inferior service. This is not just a problem in Ireland. Builders involved in residential developments around Europe have figured out that they can do a deal with somebody to supply the service. The Gigabit Infrastructure Act is European legislation that I have worked on in recent years. It has been passed and comes into effect in November of next year. It deals with precisely...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: It is an Act, not a regulation. It is to be transposed. The deadline for transposition is November 2025. It should provide for that. About 81% of the country now has access to either fibre broadband or high-speed cable Internet. Only about 19% of people do not have that. That covers everybody in Ireland, both urban and rural. As that number reduces, the 10,000 a month, the political...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Typically, a duct is like a Wavin pipe. The Gigabit Infrastructure Act places a new obligation on the owners of that infrastructure to allow competitors to sublet parts of their infrastructure, in other words to allow their hardware to be put into the ducting.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The first electricity credit will be paid between November and December. It is worth €125. The next one will be in the January-February period. The Deputy is right in saying that most people will be able to save more money by switching provider than they will get from the electricity credits. There has been a great deal of interest in that, but switching provider is worth doing. A...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: There is a low interest grant scheme for retrofit. I understand the rate is about 3%. The idea is that people receive half the money as a grant from the State and the borrow the other portion at a low interest rate. I do not think it applies to solar alone. People have to be doing a comprehensive retrofit, which is more expensive. I take the Deputy's point on that. We are putting...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: My county was not included in the first tranche, but it will be in the second. I did not want to show favouritism towards myself.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I think Leitrim, from memory, was in the first phase.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I will get the Deputy a note on which counties are included. We are doing the rest of the country, starting in the next few weeks.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: There you go.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Ossian Smyth: That is a good suggestion. I will go back to the Department and see what we can do. We have very high demand for solar. The only constraining factor is the number of people available to do the work. The number of registered installers for solar doubled over the past year. A lot of people are moving into that business. To anybody who is looking for a job in the future, I would say that...