I thank the Deputy very much. He is right. Since the question was asked, we have published both the original EY report and the second report, the Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions, JASPERS, review. These two reports provided critical answers to some of the questions asked about the western rail corridor. If I can widen out the question, the further review we are going to be doing, the national rail review, is needed because the questions we have asked to date did not take a sufficiently wide …

I consider myself part of the system. System change is what we need to address the climate crisis we face. Part of that system change relates to transport. To go back to the earlier question, how do we go from releasing 12 million tonnes of carbon a year to releasing 6 million tonnes? One of the ways to do this is to change the entire transport system towards sustainable modes. The key direction in this is set by the national planning framework. That is the strategic systemic change we need. It talks about balanced…

It will take a number of months. As the Deputy suggested, all rail lines lead to Dublin and this review was initially looking at providing high-speed rail connectivity between Dublin, Cork and Belfast but we have extended it. We first looked at extending it to Derry or Limerick, or both. The conclusion of the western rail corridor analysis was that we needed to go wider and to look at the network effects. It concluded that we needed to look at whether there are underutilised lines that we could return into service …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 53 and 61 together. The maintenance of roads not taken in charge by local authorities is the responsibility of the relevant landowners. The Local Government Act 2001 provides the statutory basis for the local improvement scheme, LIS. Under that scheme, funding can be provided to local authorities for the construction and improvement of non-public roads, that is, roads not taken in charge by local authorities, which meet the criteria set out in the Act. A contribution from the benefi…

We all do. We all deserve that for safety and the maintenance of vehicle standards and so on. I would argue that the involvement of the Department of Rural and Community Development in this is appropriate. Similar to local authorities, its specific remit is for rural communities in particular. These roads, by definition, tend to be where there might be a small number of houses in rural locations and they are non-public roads. One can argue as to why that is so but they are roads that are not in the charge or respon…

The key actors in this are the local authorities. Whichever Department is involved, be it the Department of Rural and Community Development or the Department of Transport, the decisions, applications and checking on whether money is correctly spent or whether the investment is the right one are all the responsibility of the local authority. We have a real job of work to do with the local authorities but the key task we have is in maintaining the local public road network, where there are also real budget constraint…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 54, 98, 128, 397, 398 and 403 together. I will absolutely commit to doing that. I raise one concern. We will have a major challenge because we will have so many proposals for investment in both our rail and road networks and the rail investment in particular will be a multiple of the resources that are available. To make the investments that we need to make work and to justify them we will need to ensure that our housing plans match our public transport plans. Last week, I looked at…

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this very important Commencement matter. The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of the relevant local authority in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded by the resources of councils and supplemented by regional and local road grants. Transport Infrastructure Ireland is responsible for the management of national roads in conjunction with local authorities. In additi…

I might address the second issue the Senator raised on another occasion. The interconnector is critical infrastructure that is vital for the economy, North and South. To return to the key issue we are addressing, we must recognise that the maintenance, development and improvement of local roads are critical to local economies. As the Senator said, we have to avoid the prospect of all the work being bookended to the end of the year when we will be facing into Christmas to ensure towns are not shuttered because roadw…

I thank the Senator and I am happy to update both the Senators and Ellie Hoey in Dundalk on the range of plans for dealing with plastic waste. It is a top priority for me to tackle the blight on our streets, countryside, beaches and our oceans, as Ellie has set out, caused by mismanaged plastic waste. I am grateful for both Senators' support for the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, which we launched last September. It is an ambitious plan, which includes a range of measures to reform and strengthen our was…

I hope that by the time she finishes school most of these measures will be in place and Ireland will be a better country. There will be less litter. As Senator Garvey said, in effect a third of every one of those bottles is filled with oil in order to make them. Reducing their usage and increasing recycling is part of the battle we have to take on against climate change and it will all be for the better. It will create a better economic system and less local pollution and there will be less long-term plastic, which…

The climate action and low carbon development (amendment) Bill will provide for a whole-of-government approach to address climate change, with the purpose of achieving the transition to a climate resilient, biodiversity rich and climate neutral economy by the end of the year 2050. The Bill will significantly strengthen the statutory framework for climate governance, with appropriate oversight by the Government, the Oireachtas and an enhanced Climate Change Advisory Council. The Bill will introduce new legal obligat…

There is time sensitivity because we want 2021 to be the first year in the initial five-year budget. By summertime, we want to have our new updated climate action plan. We want the Climate Change Advisory Council to be able to inform it. Yes, there is an urgency. We have an interim advisory council chaired by Marie Donnelly, who has already started the preparatory work, but we do need the full legislation in place. I expect it very shortly, not within days but within the month for sure. We will bring it to the Dáil…

My expectation is that it will come to the Dáil first. I cannot answer specifics regarding the final wording on amendments or particular aspects. I hope we will have this discussion in the Dáil very soon. This has been a very unusual process in that it was an actual draft Bill that went to pre-legislative scrutiny. Usually it is the heads of a Bill. The extent of analysis and discussion in the pre-legislative scrutiny was unprecedented. A lot of good work has been done, which will inform the Dáil debate. It means i…

I have a written response but because it is very similar to that given to Deputy O'Rourke, I might skip it and Deputy Whitmore can read it because it does answer her question directly. To come back to the process, because there was a certain time urgency I thought the pre-legislative scrutiny process would be short and then we would probably spend longer on Committee and Report Stages. However, when the Oireachtas committee came back with its suggested approach, I was happy to agree to that much more extensive cons…

On the last question, I do not. There is a whole range of other international treaties that will affect climate change. The energy charter treaty is a very specific energy treaty that has all sorts of mixed implications on climate, some pro and some of which would give rise to concerns, so it is very complicated. The recent Brexit agreement is going to affect how we approach climate and there is a whole range of new treaties coming. The issue of trade and climate is critical and a variety of different trade agreeme…

I agree. While the Deputy was in the Joint Committee on Climate Action yesterday, I was answering questions at the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, where I made the case that we will need to have a radical system change in transport. What we have done with switching to electric vehicles or switching to biofuels will deliver certain elements, but it will not deliver the enhanced ambition we are now setting ourselves. That will only come with really significant reductions in the demand for travel and …

Matters relating to the cost of grid investment and projects funded are operational matters for EirGrid and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. EirGrid is the transmission system operator and its responsibilities include the appropriate development of the grid and power system to achieve our energy policy objectives and underpin economic development.  The CRU is the independent energy regulator and, through a formal price review process, it decides on appropriate spend by EirGrid on a five-year basis. …

The new consultation from EirGrid takes a very good approach because it looks at the wider picture of how we develop our society. It is not just about emissions reductions or bringing forward renewables, but the long-term big picture thinking about what type of energy system we have to serve our society. That poses various questions to the public. Should we perhaps continue what has been done in the last ten or 20 years, which was more developer-led whereby the developers of renewable power said where they wanted t…

We will be doing what many other countries are now committed to, such as net zero by 2050 in the UK and what California is doing, which is net zero in the same timeframe. Other countries in Europe are aiming for more ambitious times sooner than that. China and Germany are doing this. The world economy is switching towards this new energy system because it is better. By 2050, and it hard to have a crystal ball, it is likely there will be a variety of different technologies that provide back-up and support to what wi…