This is a critical feature of our heritage and the character of our city. It is an issue that has been deeply controversial going back to the development of the ESB offices some 50 years ago. There was rightful controversy. Deputy Smith is right to say that the people protesting at the time were absolutely correct about protecting our Georgian heritage. My sense from passing the site every day is that the architects have done a good job with the new development. It is remarkable but it seems to me that it fits in w…

The national broadband plan contract was signed with National Broadband Ireland, NBI, in November 2019 to roll out a high-speed and future-proofed broadband network within the intervention area, which covers 1.1 million people living and working in more than 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms along with 695 schools. The national broadband plan will ensure that citizens throughout the country have access to high-speed broadband services and nobody is left without this vital service. The …

I agree completely with Deputy O'Donnell about co-ordinating in neighbouring areas. Obviously, we would like to see the commercial operators being able to ensure that every single house in the State is covered. There may be efficiencies in dovetailing. That is a commercial matter for Eir or the other commercial operators, such as SIRO, Virgin Media and others. I confirm that I would like to see that being co-ordinated but it is a commercial decision for the companies involved. It is in everyone's interest, includin…

I thank the Deputy for raising this topic. The programme for Government sets out our ambition to more than halve our carbon emissions over the course of the decade. The action we take in the coming years will be critical in order to address the climate crisis which renders our current economic model redundant and threatens our safe future on this planet. In order to deliver on our expanded and deepened climate ambition, additional far-reaching policy changes will be developed across every sector. The development of…

Deputy Calleary is absolutely right about the need for this to be something from the bottom up that is community led. I could not agree with him more and Ballina would be a fine town to lead that. There are very few towns in Europe that have salmon jumping upriver in the town centre in the dramatic way that can be seen in Ballina, which is such a beautiful town. I will give the Deputy a couple of pointers for the people of Ballina. Yesterday evening the GAA launched a new greener clubs scheme. Forty five clubs were…

I read at the weekend that the Pope's Christmas reading list includes Kate Raworth's book Doughnut Economics , which is about how the transition to a low-carbon future will transform not just the environment but also our society and our economy for the better. I look forward to seeing what he reads after that. I recognise that what we are discussing today is the assessment of 2019 and not this year's emissions. We are looking back historically, due to a variety of reasons, including the Covid crisis and the fact we…

Press rewind.

I am quite happy to so supply it and I have notes.

On a point of openness and transparency, I got my wife a lovely jacket there for €20 on the occasion which she was thrilled about. The shop is at the bottom of Grafton Street and is open for the month.

It was not tricky on this occasion.

I thank Members for their contributions; I was slightly blushing behind my mask at some of the compliments.

I was, and while I am unable to respond to all the points, I will respond to some of the comments raised. Senator Boyhan is right on what he said in his contribution. The purpose of the structure of the Climate and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 is to hold the Government to account, and perhaps I could and should have done a more detailed assessment of what happened last year. The circumstances are difficult, because I understand that the annual transition statement was made before the House in December and I do n…

By all means.

I absolutely agree. I will speak to my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan, about those Italian honey bees and see what can be done about the matter. I hope I will not leave anyone out and will respond to most Senators. I appreciate the comments of Senator Conway. I am glad to hear that the lift at Ennis train station is going to be fixed. The Senator, and a number of others, raised the wider issue of Moneypoint. We are going to stop burning coal, ev…

The Senator is absolutely correct. Part of the global issues will be addressed by the Taoiseach tomorrow at the European Council, where we will have to decide on the level of European ambition. I hope that can be agreed to be as ambitious as possible. There is a technical issue with how we define land use in the system as an overall percentage. Europe has led and China has responded in recent months. With the change of US Administration, there is a possibility that the world will row in behind this. We can go from …

I join Deputy O'Donnell in committing absolutely to giving the very best transport system possible to the people of Moyross and, more widely, the people of Limerick. The improvement and maintenance of local and regional roads is the statutory responsibility of the relevant local authority in accordance with the provisions of section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. State grants, where applicable, are intended to supplement the funding allocated to the maintenance and improvement of roads by local authorities from their ow…

I absolutely commit to working with the Deputy. Moyross cannot and will not be a cul-de-sac. We have to give its residents a world-class quality transport system that lifts the area and the whole of Limerick into the future. The Deputy stated that Irish Rail has submitted an application for a rail station in Moyross but in reality there was no such plan included in the first draft of the Limerick metropolitan area strategy for this suburban rail system for Limerick. I believe it has real merit. It is not just in th…

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for raising this issue, which was also raised by the Ceann Comhairle on Question Time in the House two weeks ago. The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within the European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial, liberalised and competitive. Responsibility for the regulation of those electricity and gas markets is solely a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. However, I understand the Deputy is referring directly to the…

The Deputy is correct that the numbers are only a small reflection of the problems that exist. However, the numbers do help to give some indicative sense of where the problem is, and in this instance the volume of complaints about problems with Eir's fixed line service was multiples of the next nearest company, Vodafone, which was, in turn, a multiple of the next nearest company. It also shows clearly that the problem was with fixed line services rather than mobile. It also reflects that not only was Covid a partia…

The national broadband plan contract was signed with National Broadband Ireland, NBI, in November last to roll out a high-speed and future-proofed broadband network within the intervention area, which covers 1.1 million people living and working in over 544,000 premises, including almost 100,000 businesses and farms, along with 695 schools. The national broadband plan will ensure that citizens throughout the entire country have access to high-speed broadband services and that nobody is left without this vital servi…