Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 April 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Business of Joint Committee

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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Apologies have been received from Deputy Kehoe. Deputy Mac Lochlainn is substituting for Deputy Carthy. Before we begin, I remind members that in the context of the current Covid-19 restrictions, only the Chairman and staff are present in the committee room and all members must join remotely from elsewhere in the parliamentary precincts. The Chairman issues invitations to join the meeting on MS Teams and members may not participate from outside the parliamentary precincts. I ask members to mute their microphones when they are not making a contribution and to use the raise hand function to indicate. Members should note that messages sent in the meeting chat are visible to all participants. Speaking slots will be prioritised for members of the committee.

Before we begin, I would like to state for the record decisions made by the joint committee in private at its MS Teams meeting on 9 April. It was agreed that the committee would write to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to express concern that feedback from the committee and stakeholders about the new veterinary medicine regulation is not being taken into account by the Department and to seek further briefing on the matter. It was also agreed to invite the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation to a future meeting of the joint committee to discuss its submission to the Government's review and renewed consultation. It was further agreed to add the new rural environment protection scheme, REPS, to the committee's work programme.

There are two topics on the agenda for today's meeting. From 9.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m., we will have an engagement with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, on pre-legislative scrutiny of the sea-fisheries (amendment) Bill 2020. From 10.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., there will be a discussion with representatives of Macra na Feirme on the impact on young farmers of CAP negotiations and the good agricultural and environmental condition, GAEC, 2.