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LAWLESS ADDRESSES INTERNATIONAL GRAND COMMITTEE ON FAKE NEWS

The International Grand Committee on Disinformation and Fake News is meeting in Dublin this week. James Lawless TD is one of the representatives of the Oireachtas and they are hearing from the social media industry, journalists and industry experts.

Earlier James questioned Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management about political advertising on its site as well as the motivations behind its proposed Libra currency.

You can see the video here

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LAWLESS : GOVT MUST ADDRESS BROADBAND PLAN CONCERNS

James Lawless TD spoke in the Dáil this week during the debate on the National Broadband Plan

“As vice chair of the Committee on Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, our committee conducted a detailed scrutiny of the plan and found the current tender is massively over budget and overly complex. The department of public expenditure has also found that the cost benefit analysis is not positive. The cost of the plan has been escalating while the number of homes requiring intervention reduced constantly due to ever more installations and technology adaptions by the private sector. Imagine are already offering broadband to 80,000 houses and Eir to 300,000 that were due to be subsidized by the exchequer. Rather than ignoring the concerns surrounding the NBP, the Government should address them before committing billions of euro of public money.”

You can watch James speak here

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LAWLESS CRITICISES MENTAL HEALTH WAITING LISTS

James Lawless TD has criticised the amount of time it can take for a patient to access Mental Health Services in Kildare

James made the comments after his Parliamentary Question on the mean time a patient might wait for a Child and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS) appointment was found to be 3 to 6 months for a non urgent routine appointment. Continue reading “LAWLESS CRITICISES MENTAL HEALTH WAITING LISTS”

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O’ROURKE – OUTRIGHT BAN ON OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

Frank O’Rourke TD  has stated that having an outright ban on exploring Oil and Gas in Ireland would be counterproductive. Deputy O’Rourke was speaking after a presentation was given by the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association to the Oireachtas Climate Change Committee.

“An outright ban on exploring Oil and Gas would be counterproductive to Ireland’s competitiveness, to Ireland’s Energy security, to our ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment, would negatively affect our balance of payments and has the potential to increase the cost of living for our citizens.”

“I fully subscribe to the principle of seeking sustainable and low carbon energy sources. Indeed, Ireland has made significant progress in relation to having a more sustainable energy mix. However, this does not mean that we stop all current methods of securing our energy source and developing our own indigenous energy supplies.”

“Around 90% of Ireland’s energy requirement is supplied by fossil fuels, with over 70% of our requirement being imported. The balance is provided by sustainable mode of energy supply which is increasing but in no way will meet the growing demand of the country’s energy requirements  (electricity, heating, transport) in the future.”

“Currently Corrib Gas provides over half of our gas needs and has resulted in our energy import bill dropping from €4.6 billion to €3.4 billion in 2016. This indigenous gas source provides protection to Ireland against interruption to the supply of imported gas. A replacement for Corrib will be required in the coming years as production declines in order to retain our energy independence and security of supply.”

“Banning exploration in Ireland would significantly increase the risk around energy security.”

“Energy security is a key enabler to attracting FDI, where Kildare has been very successful. It also has the potential to ensure that we have a competitive cost base from the perspective of energy cost.

“Recently the cost of energy has increased and we need to ensure that our future energy mix is balanced to provide Ireland with a competitive and secure supply of energy. An outright ban on Gas and Oil exploration would negatively impact  that objective,” concluded Deputy O’Rourke.