Results 3,621-3,640 of 23,950 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: I had responded to the committee's two dates.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: Obviously, given the importance of the issue, I initiated further contact with the committee and offered 7 September and today. Given that comments were made in public which do not represent the accuracy of the engagement between the committee and myself and that there was no request from this committee for any other date, I wanted to put that on the record. I very much value the importance-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: -----of this relationship and believe it is really important that we work together. I wanted to clarify those matters here today because comments were made in public that were not accurate.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: Senator Lombard's public comments bear no resemblance to the accuracy of this committee's engagement-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: While they might be accurate in his mind-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: -----they bear no resemblance to the engagement between the committee and my office-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: -----or to the accuracy of the situation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: I am clarifying-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: As a matter of housekeeping at the start, Deputy Lombard, I have outlined very clearly-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: -----my ongoing relationship with this committee, my initiation of a meeting at the start of July to brief the committee and the correspondence between my office and the secretariat in relation to organising this meeting. In light of Senator Lombard's public comments in the meantime, which were in no way representative of, or accurate about, that engagement, it is important I clarify that at...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: The Senator is very welcome to do so.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: As I said, I welcome this opportunity to engage on the important topic for farmers and our farming sector of water quality and the nitrates derogation. In my opening statement, I would like to address three key points. I will first provide an update on developments since I last engaged with this committee. I will also set out the next steps in implementing the derogation decision....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: We had a constructive discussion with the IFA last week. Of course, that is not the only discussion we have had. I issued an invitation to all farm organisations and met with the ICMSA the previous week, when I briefed and updated that organisation on the engagement and meeting I had with the Commissioner and the outcome of it. We also discussed the other key issue at the moment, which is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: I had a very open engagement with the IFA, as, indeed, did the Tánaiste on that occasion. I had the same conversation with the IFA that day that I had with the ICMSA the previous week, because I had not had an opportunity the previous week to engage with the IFA. We have been working together very closely on this. I have been working very closely with the IFA, the ICMSA and all of the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: It is clear now that Brussels is adamant so-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: It is now about finalising the way forward.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: We are clear on that position.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: Those are very much the arguments that I put to the Commissioner in my submission that I made to him in August, and also in a follow-up meeting at the start of September. Farm representatives and those on the water quality working group would have fed those arguments to me as part of the consultations that I did with them in advance of compiling the submission to the Commission. There is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: We do not have the figure it will be once banding is fully taken into account. That will be established in the next period of time. We expect it to be somewhere in the region between 3,000 and 4,000 farmers.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)
Charlie McConalogue: I expect that banding will have an impact. We only know what we know at the moment, which is the current figure of 7,000 farmers in derogation of whom just over 3,000 farm between 220 kg N/ha and 250 kg N/ha. We accept that banding will have an impact and will somewhat increase the number of farms in the category of between 220 kg N/ha and 250 kg N/ha.