Results 41-60 of 1,109,603 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Verona Murphy OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:Marc MacSharry OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor OR speaker:Heather Humphreys OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Ossian Smyth OR speaker:Matt Shanahan) in 'Committee meetings'

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Darren O'Rourke: It is important that the Minister is across this as a project. With a united voice, those of us locally have said the project will not be delivered in the timeframe suggested or in the way EirGrid seems to have outlined. We have almost 20 years of evidence to that effect. From my end, and that of my colleagues, the frustration is that EirGrid does not seem to be listening. My concern is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: We have to maintain a certain independence. Sometimes as Minister it can be frustrating because I always seem to say in the first line of a response that I do not have responsibility for something or have to retain a certain distance, but that is true because of our legal systems and the need to allow regulatory agencies like the CRU and the ESB to operate. I have been across this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Darren O'Rourke: While I thank the Minister, it seems that we are almost speaking different languages. The Minister made the case in terms of the merits and all-island strategic importance of the interconnector. I do not disagree with that, nor do Conor Murphy and my party. We disagree with the detail of the delivery of the project. To be fair, we have been proven correct for 20 years regarding this....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I do not think the northern authorities want to go back to the drawing board. I agree with them. As I said, we attended a meeting of the European Energy Council today and Mario Draghi's report was discussed. It is all about the grid and the future economy. Economic development in the North is not easy at the moment, given budget constraints and so on. If we do not develop the economy...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Darren O'Rourke: Does the Minister know that to be the case?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I expect the project will advance. While maintaining my independence, my message is that we need to build the interconnector. It is good for the North and the South. In fact, if we do not have it, it would be a disaster for this country to go back to a divided energy system. That would be the worst outcome for this country and all of our people.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: North-South Interconnector (15 Oct 2024)

Question No. 58 taken with Written Answers.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Oct 2024)

Tax Collection

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Oct 2024)

Darren O'Rourke: 59. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he is aware of the findings in the 2023 report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (details supplied) that 39% of carbon taxes collected are not accounted for; if he can account for how his Department spent all of its carbon tax; the amount unspent or unaccounted for in 2023; and if he will make a statement on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Oct 2024)

Darren O'Rourke: I want to ask the Minister if he is aware of the findings of the 2023 report from the Comptroller and Auditor General which states that 39% of carbon taxes collected are not accounted for. Can the Minister account for how his Department spent its carbon tax, the amount underspent or unaccounted for in 2023 and make a statement on the matter?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The programme for Government committed to allocate revenues raised from the increase in carbon tax rates out to 2030 to ensure that the increases in the carbon tax are progressive by spending €3 billion on targeted social welfare and other initiatives to prevent fuel poverty and ensure a just transition, to provide €5 billion to part-fund a socially progressive national...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Infrastructure (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: On the amendments, this is a very extensive Bill. It was 900 pages in the end and there were 150-odd amendments on the last Stage in the Seanad. My sense from officials is that issue was about making sure the law was not contradictory in some sense. There were changes because we only established MARA last year and made the switch from the foreshore licensing system to this new marine...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Infrastructure (15 Oct 2024)

Thomas Pringle: Just to get clarity from the Minister on it, these amendments he put forward make it easier for a developer to know and have clarity with regard to putting in an application to An Bord Pleanála, while knowing that it will not be passed at all. They would go to the expense of preparing the application, go through the whole process and go to An Bord Pleanála, knowing that it would...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Infrastructure (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: No. The amendment, from my perspective, is around us requiring a gas storage facility, which has both onshore and offshore components. With regard to those two systems, offshore planning is different from onshore planning, and by the very nature of such a storage facility, it might be both so we have to make sure that if there was a future application for such a facility, there would not be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Energy Policy

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: 56. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the action undertaken by the Biden Administration this year to review the climate change and economic impact of liquefied natural gas, LNG, and the specific requirement that entails to consider the health and safety implications involved in LNG. [37288/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: The USA, one of the largest producers but also consumers of liquefied natural gas, recently paused new LNG export approvals to review the significant public safety, climate and economic dangers of this technology. Will the Minister accept that Ireland should follow suit and undertake a review to consider some of those same harms?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: I have not received a formal report from my Department on the actions undertaken by the Biden Administration as referenced in the question. The Government approved and published the Energy Security in Ireland to 2030 report last November which concludes that Ireland’s future energy will be secure by moving from a fossil fuel-based energy system to an electricity-led system,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank the Minister. There is little mention there of the health and safety impacts of LNG, and as the Minister must be aware, it is a significant national security and public health risk for the nation. When LNG ignites, it creates a fire so hot that it can burn people, animals and vegetation up to a mile away. It is actually unlikely, having looked at the impacts of some of the previous...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Energy Policy (15 Oct 2024)

Eamon Ryan: The Deputy is right. That is an issue for CRU and in the end, An Bord Pleanála is the relevant planning authority in any application for such a facility. CRU's role in gas regulation goes back, by my recollection, to the whole Corrib issue, where this was a central issue - whether we could guarantee the safety of local communities. CRU does that on an ongoing basis. I have not asked...