Results 21-40 of 2,376 for speaker:Tim Lombard

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Going back to my original point, we can argue as to whether there is a change of focus regarding the actual legislation itself. For farmers who made a claim since 1972 and who are now hearing that a 3-tonne meal bin does not qualify, should they be fearful of the Revenue Commissioners? Should they be concerned that there will be a review of claims they submitted 25 years ago, five years ago...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Let us say claims from five years ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Does Mr. Egan see why people listening to this discussion might be fearful that there could be an issue regarding what they claimed and what potentially was not claimable? There is a slight change in focus, although we disagree on the terminology. Grants were made previously that might not fit into the criteria that have been announced. The worry for some farmers will be that the Revenue...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: I thank Mr. Egan and Ms Lyons.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: If I am reading it correctly, in the first three months of 2024, the percentage of claims approved has dropped to 93%, 91% in February and 94% in March. February had the biggest percentage of claims being made. I was explaining why previously. That is down 5% on the previous yearly average. Why is that down by 5% on the previous yearly average?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: It is still five points down on the yearly average over the last three years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: I will absolutely take Ms Lyons at her word that it fluctuates. If it fluctuates, the fluctuation would mean that, for the next nine months, Revenue would want to get 97% approval to get to the yearly average of the last three years, by my stats. Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: For the next nine months, Revenue will want to get approval rates of 97% to get the yearly average of 93% over the last three years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: That would prove the witnesses' point that there has been no change. Statistically, it does not work.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Surely the claims had the same content over the last three years as they will this year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Can I safely say that if there has been a yearly average for the last three years of 96%, when the technologies have not been changing over the period of my lifetime in farming, that the yearly average would be 96% this year? The world has not changed in a day. If we are going to get the yearly average of 96% this year, then for the next nine months, the only way you can achieve that is to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: VAT Refunds to Unregistered Farmers: Revenue Commissioners (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: My maths calculation is right. The only way to statistically come up with the exact same figure as the last three years is to have an approval rate, for the next nine months, of 97%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: I welcome the witnesses before us. Following on from the conversation on the native tree scheme and the 250 ha uptake, would that be 250 applicants? How many applicants are we talking about?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: It is a ten-year programme. After that, the native woodland is a permanent fixture; it will not be moved at any level. I think the barrier for many of these schemes is fear that one cannot go to another farming enterprise at another time. The barrier I come across seems to be that internal fear within the community and how we deal with it and work with that issue. I ask Mr....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: We will not be looking at premiums for the second rotation. Have we kind of closed the door on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: What Mr. Gleeson is basically saying here is if this was to happen, funds would be offloaded that could be drawn back in time when the harvest comes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: If you look at the graph, the Department is going to have a considerable amount of forestry coming its way in the next decade in particular that will actually be up for felling, and making sure we have that incentive to do something is really important.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: We have two issues. One is the replanting obligation and making sure it happens. The other is to try to get our 8,000 ha harvested, which is a significant issue. Obviously, we have to start somewhere with the programme. Nobody believes that we are going to get 8,000 ha in year 1. This is a graph of some nature. I am not sure if it is going to be a flat graph and I am not even sure it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Okay. Regarding our targets, how we are going to try to reach them and how we are going to turn the tables, Mr. Gleeson mentioned that there will be information and education programmes with the involvement of the farming community, and maybe even outside the farming community, to get investors involved. We are eight or nine months into the programme at this stage. Will Mr. Delany give me a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forest Strategy Implementation Plan: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 May 2024)

Tim Lombard: Does Mr. Delany not think we need to do more? For example, we have a huge discussion group on many different farming topics from agriculture to tillage to beef. The discussion groups meet monthly. Should the Department not intervene here and say it needs to have an engagement with all these people who meet once per month on a farm? All of a sudden the Department would meet a cohort of...