Darragh O'Brien

Sure. We are drafting the heat networks (miscellaneous provisions) Bill. That will establish the regulatory model for district heating, including communal heating systems, to ensure consumer protections are in place and to support the delivery of a vibrant district heating industry. There is a genuine opportunity in Ireland in district heating. There is only one scheme in the whole country. We hav…

The programme for Government reaffirms Ireland's commitment to and our ambitious target of 8 GW of solar capacity connected to the grid by 2030, to assist with meeting the goal of 80% electricity demand supplied through renewables. Solar energy is now a growing source of electricity, with about 2.4 GW of solar power capacity in our grid and another 1 GW on rooftops. Going back 12 years, it was onl…

I understand the points the Deputy has raised. Solar is a relatively new but growing source of energy in Ireland. It is clean, green, sustainable and cheap energy. We have fine agricultural land across the country too and we need to make sure that we can continue to sustain our own population and sustain the agricultural and horticultural sector through our exports as well. We export over 80% of w…

I will respond first to Deputy McCarthy, who tabled the question. Most of us are for sustainable, clean, renewable energy to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel. We have had a good discussion and questions here about energy affordability. How do we drive that affordability? We drive that affordability by investing in our grid, by delivering projects like the North-South interconnector, by expand…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 151 and 157 together. We have a few questions on the SEAI grants, which we have revised to make them more accessible for families. More than 244,000 homes across the country have been retrofitted. We have invested approximately €1.7 billion in retrofitting to deliver permanent savings for households, to reduce emissions and energy use and to make homes warmer, saf…

There are options there. For some people this had operated already. They can apply for themselves and have the grant refunded once the works are completed. They can apply themselves and have the grant paid to the contractor and have that net option. There are low-interest loans available as well. If someone wants to go for a deeper retrofit and to do more work above and beyond, they can apply for …

You can go in. If you have already received one grant for one cavity wall, you can go in for a second one. If you did not get window grants before, you can go back in for them as well, so you are not precluded. The low-interest loan is available in both urban and rural Ireland. It is available across all 26 counties of the Republic. I do not have the breakdown per county, but we could certainly ge…

The Deputy started asking his question. I did not pick up the start of it, so will he ask that again?

I thank the Deputy for raising this because it gives me an opportunity to look into it. I am a big supporter of active travel. This year, we will spend about €363 million across the country on active travel. We have already invested over €1 billion in these programmes. I am aware that Tramore Valley Park is a tremendous facility but I am also aware of the frustrations raised by the Deputy, namely…

As I said, I am very supportive of these projects. I said Cork County Council area but it was Cork City Council area that was allocated €27 million this year under the NTA’s active and sustainable transport investment programme. What happens is the NTA will do the allocations. The draft allocations come to us. We have a very good active travel team within the Department but the local authorities a…

I am aware the Deputy met ESB Networks representatives today. I am glad he found that meeting informative and constructive. I will work with him on this specific issue. He articulated very well the impact it has on the communities he mentioned in Dunmore, Glenamaddy and elsewhere in Gaillimh. I will outline a couple of initiatives for the electricity grid and then get to the specifics in my second…

As I said, the meeting was important and gives the Deputy a clear view of what is happening. Work is under way in Tuam. Recent outages in the wider Tuam area and surrounding areas have primarily been caused by lightning events, timber vegetation, as the Deputy mentioned, wildlife and equipment failure on the network. There is a major programme of pole replacement. We have work to do on forestry co…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following: Dáil Éireann resolves that the Regulation of Drones Bill 2025 be read a second time on this day 12 months, to allow for the actions set out in the National Policy Framework for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and agreed by Government to be progressed and to allow for a full examination of the legal and policy implic…

I thank Deputy Ward. I assure him there are no delays. We published the review of the national development plan and we set out very clearly what projects we are going to deliver. I will go through some of the specifics. I thank Deputy Ward for the question and I thank him for acknowledging the number of homes being built in his constituency. His constituency colleague sometimes does not recognise …

To complement the national development plan, NDP, which we have published and in which we have detailed the projects, we have also published the capital investment plan for our grid, known as PR 6 or price review 6. That is up to €18.9 billion of investment in our grid between now and 2030. That takes into account all the major projects we are delivering. It also takes into account the new 300,000…

We are. DART+ West and DART+ South West are interlinked and are both critical. I want to use this opportunity to set the record straight on this. Deputy Shane Moynihan, a constituency colleague of Deputy Mark Ward's, has been at the forefront in ensuring this project moves forward. DART+ South West must be advanced as it will provide the depot capacity for the new fleet on the south-west line as w…

I thank Deputy Ahern for raising this question. Ministers of State, Deputies Canney and Buttimer, and I had good discussions on this with officials yesterday in preparation for questions here. This issue of the new LED lights and high intensity discharge, HID, headlights are known to provide greater brightness, improved colour rendering, increase efficiency and, in the case of LED in particular, l…

The Deputy is right but we do have a way of doing this now. As I mentioned, the UNECE Working Party on Lighting and Light-Signalling is going to establish that task force. That had to be done looking at European standards as opposed to British standards. As I said, I have discussed this with the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and he will be putting this on the agenda for work to be done at a Eu…

I will make a suggestion. It would be helpful to all of us working on this if the transport committee looked at it. Through the UNECE working group, it will be, and is, on the agenda. I do not have any data at this stage to support claims the changes in standards have led to road accidents, though I am not saying that has not happened either. The transport committee's input would be useful. It cou…

I thank the Deputy for his question. He will be aware that BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in our bus network and system that will provide much better services across our cities, covering Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway. It is the largest investment in our bus system in the history of the State and is managed by the NTA. The city programmes cover the constructi…

My answer today is consistent with the answer I gave the Deputy in September. I plan to get the N8 up and running in 2026. We have done other things with BusConnects as well. We have started the first two quality bus corridors. Liffey Valley corridor is under construction now. I have signed the contracts. There is major investment in that scheme, about €200 million. We have signed the contracts no…

Those in the NTA are very good colleagues. We have a new chief executive in place now. They are very competent at what they do. I want this service in place 2026 and I will be saying that to them. I have said that to them. I do not control every letter that goes out from the NTA. It does a very good job and it has more resources now than it has ever had. Thankfully, because of the hard work of our…

I fully acknowledge the impact of aircraft noise. I live beside the airport myself and have lived there my whole life. I represent a community and a constituency that sees the benefits of the airport but also communities that are impacted by it. It is really important that residents' and communities' views are taken into account and that the airport operates a good neighbour policy. I have met wit…

I should say that ANCA is currently carrying out an assessment of the noise situation at Dublin Airport and the potential noise impact of planning applications that seek permission for infrastructure and increases to the permitted passenger capacity at the airport. The airport is a critical piece of national infrastructure, we know that. It underpins tens of thousands of jobs. I have always suppor…

All of us, including the Government, want the airport to continue to grow in a sustainable way. I want the false inhibitors to that growth, such as the airport cap brought in in 2007-08, to be removed. I will bring forward legislation to Cabinet very shortly. We want to get that through the Dáil as quickly as we can. That does not override concerns of residents. I grew up beside the airport and I …