Results 1-20 of 1,108,143 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Michael McNamara OR speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Maurice Quinlivan OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Eamon Ryan OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Catherine Martin OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Brendan Smith OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:Peter Burke OR speaker:Richard Bruton)
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: I thank our guests for their presentations. Let me comment on procurement first. I am a bit puzzled. The witnesses seem to be saying they do not have enough influence over the decisions made. Every public sector body has adopted the commitment to a 51% reduction. Presumably, the first and easiest thing to do is design the things one is now procuring. How can we continue and not be able...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: Is their budget a lifetime budget or is the requirement to stay within this year's budget? There is an entirely different view if you take the lifetime impact and you factor in the carbon impact. As we go along, the price of carbon is heading towards the moon. What budget are they staying within?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: I would imagine that too.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: No one is biting with the president's teeth, as they say in America. The reality is the pressure of today's budget squeezes out all the desirable principles. The targets are not even ambitious; they are quite modest targets in a lot of areas. We need to shift something here. I saw from the SEAI's projection that the cost of securing some of these targets is between €9.5 billion...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: The SEAI has presented the evidence of where we are.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: As regards procurement, I do not think the witnesses got around to answering the question about data. If we want to drive change, we have to benchmark where we are and hold people's toes to the fire as to where they are moving. Are the witnesses able to tell us, or is someone able to tell us, the percentage of EVs being acquired where public bodies are acquiring vehicles? What is in 2024...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: That is illustrative, but at the back of the submission, in one of the appendices, there is a heap of things, like 100% recycled paper and no fossil fuel boilers going in. Do we get a snapshot? Is there an annual snapshot, a sort of name and shame, if obvious decisions are being made that fall outside what would be reasonable procurement rules? I find on this committee that we struggle to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: They are just qualitative things. They are not concrete measures of anything.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: The SEAI has said that there has not been any progress since 2020. What are the critical things on which we might have expected progress but it has not been made?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: The SEAI is pushing the beacons of excellence. Is that visible on some-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: Do the witnesses want to comment on the contractors and why we cannot use them?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Update on the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Richard Bruton: What is the problem with-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: I thank the witnesses for coming in front of the committee. I will follow on from Deputy Hourigan’s questions. Ms Agbona explained her experience regarding the lunch break, the social side and transition year. It is powerful to hear this. It is good that we are having this conversation and that it is on the record of the committee. I thank her for that. I will start with a...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: Can Ms Agbona give an example of that? For people like me who are learning and for those who will look back at this meeting, it would be important to give an example of that stark difference. It is positive to hear this but it should be happening throughout a child or a teenager’s learning experience.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: That is powerful. Thank you.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: I am aware that we will have the Department in and I want to be able to ask the questions. We are saying it should be incorporated into support plans. Ms Walsh said that different schools do it differently. Should there be something like a circular from the Department indicating what is best practice?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: I want to talk about the technology and when it fails, but I wanted to ask another question. As a committee, we went to a school with children who are deaf. The kids would probably call themselves teenagers and they were all taller than me. One of the things that really stood out to me was how they described things like transition year work experience being very difficult. Dr. McCarthy...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: Excellent.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion (15 Oct 2024)
Mairead Farrell: Will Ms O’Dwyer explain how exactly how that works for someone who does not know?