Deputy O'Sullivan asked me to name the local authorities. I know my own council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, is engaging with councils in other European countries to figure out how they manage it. I hope it will be one of the first. I do not have a list of the other four local authorities, but when I get it, I will send it to the Deputy. On the question about excess money, I outlined the financial model to Deputy Whitmore. It is not for profit. The scheme has significant running costs and the largest cos…

Deputy O'Sullivan suggested that the local authorities should have the most accessible machines and that is a very good suggestion. I will go back to the local authorities on that. He asked about credit being applied to people's phones. Local authority civic amenity sites do not handle very small quantities of cash, such as 15 cent. They are really looking at what the solution is for dealing with cash. Credit to a phone may be the answer. There is a difficulty with transaction charges on very small amounts of money…

-----because if they try to sell to sell any stock that does not have the Re-turn logo from 1 June, they are liable to fines of up to €5,000.

There is close co-operation across many sections of Government regarding cyber risks and threats and the specific issue of cybercrime is under the remit of the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána. The National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC, which is part of my Department, monitors, detects and responds to cyber security incidents in the State, and builds resilience in IT systems with particular emphasis on critical infrastructure and Government. Those resilience-building measures include a set of security req…

I can confirm the NCSC is doing that in co-operation with An Garda Síochána because the gardaí are the people who see first-hand what the effect of these scams is. The scams are always changing because people are protecting themselves. It is an arms race. The criminals then change their methods. Then the NCSC and An Garda Síochána communicate to the public through communication campaigns. They have a cybercrime week in October when they tell people about how to protect themselves from cybercrime. It is not just aim…

It is not just a matter for the Garda. As our lives go online, criminals go online. We spend more of our time there so it is natural that more crime happens online. That is why the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau is a growing division of the Garda - as so many crimes are reported. During the pandemic, there was a huge increase in the amount of scam texts and calls with people trying to get money with fake deliveries and so on. I convened a meeting of the chief executives of all the phone companies and asked them …

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. Through the national broadband plan, all sectors will be provided with the connectivity needed to fully exploit digital opportunities, leading to more balanced regional development, while supporting the green transition. There are more than 283,989 premises in County Cork, of which o…

As the Deputy said, this information is not available on the website at the moment. When I started in this position, at the launch of the national broadband plan, there was no information beyond two years. If it was beyond two years, it just stated some time between now and 2026. I asked the NBI to provide the exact date or at least to the nearest quarter when it would be provided to tell people what it was, even though it could change. That has been useful and allowed people to plan. If they know they are not gett…

I am willing to give the Deputy or any other Deputy information like that if they seek it in particular. About 240,000 homes have now been passed. About one third of the people passed have connected to the service. I expect that will keep rising until about 80% of people passed will connect. We will also reach the halfway mark for the project and will complete by the end of 2026. We will complete on time and on budget. Later this year we are going to connect to the Black Valley in neighbouring County Kerry, one of …

Through the first two renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auctions, my Department has provided pathways and supports for communities to participate in renewable energy projects through the application of a community projects category. Ten community projects were successful in the RESS 2 auction. Of these, eight signed implementation agreements to deliver under the RESS 2 terms and conditions and remain in the scheme. Those projects are proceeding through the scheme milestones. Some may develop through alter…

I start by acknowledging that community energy is really important. It creates a sense of ownership and belonging and the mechanisms that might work in the commercial sector have not worked in the community. The mechanism of auction has not proved appropriate in the community sector. It is because of this that a new scheme is being launched. There was extensive engagement with communities to try to devise a scheme that would be suitable and successful whereby instead of bidding for a price, a price would be agreed …

I will ask the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to provide that information to the Deputy directly.

I do not imagine it is. I do not know if there is any legal impediment to releasing it. All the Deputy has asked for is the nature of the products - whether they are solar or wind, who the projects are, and what the status is of the eight projects proceeding. I will ask the Minister to provide the Deputy with more details on that. I do not have details of those particular eight projects, and I am not sure if that is asked for within the question. However, I will ask the Minister to provide her with that information…

The statutory 2018 national adaptation framework, NAF, sets out Ireland's climate adaptation policy. Following my Department's review of the framework I approved the development of a new NAF, and the draft was completed in December 2023. It incorporates key sectoral and stakeholder input, including from the Climate Change Advisory Council. A statutory public consultation was undertaken earlier this year. The NAF will be submitted to Government for approval shortly, with publication anticipated in the second quarter…

We spent most of our time talking about the climate action plan, the ways to reduce emissions and prevent the worst effects of climate change from happening, and the adaptation plans are what is done when it does happen, and when flooding occurs, how we build the infrastructure to prevent it from happening. There are many questions in this House on flooding. They are answered by the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW. It is the OPW which has responsibility for making one of these sectoral adaptation …

I agree with everything the Deputy is saying but it is very important these questions are put not just to the Minister for the environment, Deputy Ryan. He is not alone in being responsible for dealing with all of these problems. That is why there are sectoral plans that are allocated to each of the relevant Ministers. For example, there is an agriculture, forestry and seafood plan for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. There is one for biodiversity which is with the Department of Housing, Local Go…

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, which is high speed and future-proofed. National Broadband Ireland, NBI, is rolling out a broadband network through its contract with the Minister. The intervention area covers in excess of 1.1 million people living and working in more than 560,000 premises, including almost 100,000 …

The nature of the plan is 100% coverage. The country has been divided into 227 areas. The contractor only gets paid when it connects 100% of premises within that area. In other words, it has to pass fibre past every farm, business and home to get its payment. This is not a scheme that leaves people out. It completes by the end of 2026 and at that point 100% of the premises in the intervention area in rural Ireland – 560,000 houses and 1.1 million people – will have access to fibre broadband if they want it. In fact…

There are crews working in every county in Ireland. The plan was devised in such a way that, rather than go from one county or province to the next, the whole county would be worked on at the same time. It is not a case that one county or community is being left out. Naturally, with a seven-year plan, there are people who will be passed in year 7 and they will not be as happy as the people who got passed in year 1. Naturally there are borders. Just as there are county borders and areas that have been completed, the…

I am not sure I have the answer to the question at hand. My apologies.