Written Answers Nos. 250-262
250. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 118 of 3 November 2015, if the two tonnes of Asian clams removed from the River Shannon being stored in County Roscommon have been destroyed; if he will confirm their current status. [41011/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraI refer to the reply to Question No. 764 of 4 November 2015. The position is unchanged.
251. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when residents of rural County Tipperary will see an improvement in the delivery of broadband services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41035/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available.
Last November I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas that will have access to commercial high speed broadband services.
The AMBER areas show the target areas for the State intervention. All premises within the AMBER areas will be included in the State's intervention.
The map allows all members of the public, be they business or residential, to see whether their premises or home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention.
It is anticipated that speeds of at least 30Mbps will be also delivered through the Government's intervention and the network will be designed to cater for future increased demand from consumers and business.
Consumers can also consult the websites of the various commercial operators to ascertain details of current and planned future deployment plans.
I can confirm that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to over 26,500 premises to date in Co Tipperary with over 16,700 more expected to be served by commercial investment. Approximately 41,200 remaining premises in Tipperary will be covered either by further commercial investment or be the target for the proposed State intervention under the NBP. The breakdown of premises covered per townland is available on the high speed Broadband map.
Over 40 responses were received following the publication of the NBP proposed Intervention Strategy in July last. Non-confidential versions of these submissions are being published and can be accessed at www.Broadband.gov.ie.
Meanwhile, my Department continues to review the technical and financial detail relating to potential new commercial investment proposals. I expect to proceed to formal procurement before the end of the year.
The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award.
In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018 with an ambition of 100% coverage by end of 2020.
252. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the proposals in County Louth where broadband services will be provided by private service providers, by the Electricity Supply Board and by the State, listed by area and by district electoral division; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41046/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Broadband Plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. These very significant investments represent a step-change in the quality of broadband services available.
Last November, I published a national high speed coverage map for 2016. This map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The map shows Ireland with two colours, blue and amber and was developed based on the most up to date information available at the time of publication.
The areas marked blue represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering, or have plans to deliver, high speed broadband services by end 2016. The areas marked amber represent those areas where the State intends to intervene to ensure they will have access to high speed broadband services.
The map allows all members of the public, be they business or residential, to see whether their premises or home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by the end of 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention.
Consumers can also consult the websites of the various commercial operators to ascertain details of current and planned future deployment plans.
It is anticipated that speeds of at least 30Mbps will be delivered through the Government's intervention and the network will be designed to cater for future increased demand from consumers and business.
I can confirm that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to over 43,900 premises to date in County Louth with a further 1,000 expected to be served by commercial investment based on existing plans. The remaining 15,000 premises in County Louth will be covered by further commercial investment or be the target for the proposed State intervention under the National Broadband Plan. The breakdown of premises covered, per townland, is available on the High Speed Broadband Map.
Over 40 responses were received following the publication of the NBP proposed Intervention Strategy in July 2015. Non-confidential versions of these submissions have been published and can be accessed at www.Broadband.gov.ie.
Meanwhile, my Department continues to review the technical and financial detail relating to potential new commercial investment proposals. I intend to proceed to formal procurement before the end of the year.
The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3 to 5 years of the contract award.
In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018, with all addresses passed by 2020.
253. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to implement the recommendations made in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht's report on River Shannon flooding published in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41052/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraOfficials in my Department have consulted with both Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and ESB as regards recommendations that may be appropriate to those agencies. I have asked both agencies to respond directly to the Deputy.
254. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is aware of the Bara judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered last month; if he will indicate if the information in any of the databases assembled and processed by his Department, or by a company (details supplied) towards the administration of the Eircode postcode scheme was gathered using personal data previously collected and held by the State towards a different purpose; if persons whose personal data was gathered in such manner have been notified of the transfer of their data to the administration of the Eircode scheme; if not, his views that all such databases are now illegal in view of the Bara judgment; the measures he proposes to address this matter; the correspondence he has had with senior management at this company on this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41106/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraCapita Business Support Services Ireland Limited were awarded a 10 year contract in December 2013 to develop and implement the National Postcode System, on behalf of the State. The contract covers the design of the Eircode, encoding public sector databases, accessing the GeoDirectory database, the launch and implementation of Eircode and the on-going management of the system for the licence period. Capita do not hold any personal data on the Eircode database or Eircode Finder. It includes business names, which in some cases can refer to an individual, particularly for small businesses or sole traders. The Eircode database is based on information received from An Post GeoDirectory.
As part of the implementation process an address matching exercise was carried out on public sector databases. The purpose of this exercise was to populate key government databases with postcodes prior to launch. Approximately 80 million records were encoded, none of which contained personal data.
Earlier this year I introduced a short piece of legislation to clarify the position in respect of Eircodes and data protection issues. The Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Amendment Act 2015 provides protection for specified legitimate postcode activities to be carried out. The exercise of these activities is fundamental to the establishment and implementation of the postcode project. An example of a legitimate postcode activity would be the creation or management, by the postcode contractor, of a postcode database providing that the database only includes the fields containing the postcode, geo-coordinate, address or a variation of address, and even then only in certain limited circumstances.
255. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for details of all instances from 1 January 2000 to 2015 to date where legislation introduced by him or on his behalf, which is enacted and still in force, contains a provision amending the Data Protection Acts to allow for the transfer of personal or other data collected, retained and processed by the State for a particular purpose towards another specific purpose, in tabular form; the financial cost of creating and administering such databases, by case; the projected financial cost for databases not yet complete; the specific legislative provision which enabled such data transfers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41133/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has not enacted any legislation which amends the Data Protection Acts. Any legislation introduced complies with the provisions of the Data Protection Acts, where appropriate. For example, in relation to Eircodes, the recently enacted Communications Regulation Postal Services Amendment Act 2015 did not amend the Data Protection Acts but rather the legislation was drafted in accordance with the Data Protection Acts and was designed to strengthen its provisions.
256. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of new State bodies and agencies under his remit that have been established since February 2011; the number of such bodies subject to a sunset clause; the number of new public bodies currently being planned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41266/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere have been no new State Bodies established by my Department since February 2011, nor do I plan to establish any new bodies at this time.
257. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the efforts made to date in opposing the imposition on the haulage industry of the lorry road user levy introduced in the Six Counties in 2014; the continued action he is taking to oppose the application of the charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40912/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe UK HGV road user levy was introduced in April 2014. This Government lobbied actively against the application of the charge to Northern Ireland, in co-operation with Stormont Ministers. Unfortunately, the UK Minister for Transport chose to give only very minor exemptions to Northern Ireland from the road user charge. However, few Irish hauliers are paying the maximum charge of £10 per day to access UK roads. The UK charge is a sliding scale, with rates ranging from £1.70 to £10 per day, or £85 to £1,000 per annum, depending on vehicle type and weight. The reduction in commercial motor vehicle tax which was announced in Budget 2016 will more than compensate for the UK road user levy and reduces commercial motor tax in Ireland below the equivalent commercial motor taxes in the UK.
258. Deputy Eamon Gilmore asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of the recent report by the Road Safety Authority on the regulation of vintage cars; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40924/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraGiven the competing road safety priorities which my Department has had to deal with, my officials could only turn their attention to the RSA's review of the arrangements in relation to the roadworthiness testing of vintage vehicles in the latter part of this year. The RSA's review has now been examined by my officials and recommendations have been submitted to me for my consideration. I intend to come to a decision on this issue in the coming weeks.
I appreciate the value of the vintage and veteran vehicle movement and have reiterated on a number of occasions that none of the recommendations contained in the RSA's review would involve those who currently enjoy an exemption from compulsory testing, that is, those owners of cars and motor caravans first registered prior to 1st January 1980 and used for social and domestic purposes, being brought within the compulsory roadworthiness testing regime.
259. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if an application has been received by the National Transport Authority to amend the current licence operated by Dublin Coach and M7 Coach on the Dublin to Killarney and Tralee routes to allow for the pick-up and drop-off of passengers in Abbeyfeale, Newcastle West and Rathkeale in County Limerick; when a decision will be made on an application to amend; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40939/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe issue raised is a matter for the National Transport Authority (NTA) and I have forwarded the Deputy's question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within ten working days.
260. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the Ten T projects proposed for funding in the last call for projects to national Governments by his Department; the basis on which they were selected; if the selection process was open and transparent; if the evaluation of all the projects considered was published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40943/15]
Amharc ar fhreagra261. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if funds are available under the financial envelope of the European Union for the period 2014 to 2020 for the development of transport infrastructure; the European Union sources of this funding; the types of funds available; if the Government has published an operational programme in relation to the allocation of these funds; the amount of funding available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40944/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 260 and 261 together.
Details of projects proposed for funding in the last CEF-transport call are available on the European Commission website http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5269_en.htm.
Irish projects recommended for co-funding include projects in the Ports of Cork, Dublin and Shannon Foynes, and an Iarnród Eireann city-centre resignalling project. Irish organisations were also involved as consortium members in a number of projects recommended for funding in areas of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Motorways of the Sea (MoS) and Single European Skies Automatic Traffic Management System (SESAR).
The independent selection process is carried out by the Innovation Executive Agency under the aegis of DG MOVE in the commission and projects are evaluated by independent experts against criteria such as maturity, relevancy, quality ability to provide matching co-funding, fulfilling the conditions of the call for proposal and the TEN-t network and details of the evaluation are provided to project promoters.
In terms of future EU funding, the main source of funding for transport infrastructure is under CEF and another Call for transport projects under CEF was published earlier this month. Details can be found on the following link: https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ten+t+network+amount+required+to+implement.
Following this Call, I understand that another CEF transport call for non-cohesion Member States may not arise until 2018. The majority of the direct provision CEF-transport budget for non-cohesion Member States(€9.08 billion) will be allocated under this call and the previous Call.
The future budget for CEF-transport co-funding for non-cohesion Member States will involve a review of progress on existing CEF projects and recycling of monies not being spent in accordance with project milestones and within the timeframe of 2014-2020. It is thus not possible to make exact statement of future calls for proposals and budgets for this programme.
I and my officials will continue to work with agencies under the remit of my Department and other Irish Organisations in advocating and facilitating suitable projects for direct provision co-funding and other financial instruments under CEF-transport.
CEF-transport projects are administered for DG Move by Innovation and Executive Agency (INEA) independently of individual Member States.
Under Interreg IV (SEUPB) EU funding was used for the Enterprise Refurb/Drogheda Viaduct rail project.
The new INTERREG Programme (VA) for 2014-2020 is one of 60 programmes across the European Union designed to promote greater levels of cross-border co-operation. Northern Ireland, the Border Region of Ireland and Western Scotland share a number of common features with other border areas across Europe where developmental problems are exacerbated by the existence of borders. The Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport is the lead Department for the Sustainable Transport measure. This measure has been allocated €40 m at a co-funding rate of 85% so it is a very valuable programme. The funding will be allocated to a multi-modal transport hub, to electric vehicle infrastructure and for greenways.
262. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the cost of restoring funding to local authorities under the local improvement scheme for community involvement schemes for non-local authority roads. [40960/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority. The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) provides funding for road and laneways that councils have not taken in charge. That is, private roads and landways, the maintenance and improvement of these roads is, in the first instance, a matter for the relevant landowner.
The LIS for regional and local roads remains in place but my Department does not provide a separate grant allocation towards this scheme. Instead local authorities may use a proportion of State grant funding for LIS should they wish to do so. Where local authorities elect to operate the LIS, applications are made directly to the local authority and my Department does not have details of the individual applications or the costs involved. The annual outputs provided to my Department by local authorities outline the overall number and cost of LIS schemes funded by local authorities. The 2014 returns indicate that 93 LIS projects were undertaken at a total cost of €1.35 million with funding of €1.1 million provided by local authorities.
There are no plans at present to revise the current arrangement. I take the view that local authorities are best placed to assess whether funding should be allocated to LIS.
