Results 4,181-4,200 of 8,194 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Hold on now. As regards the previous meeting of the committee, I gave Mr. Hayes the information on the first day and when we brought him in again and I questioned him about it, he said that 1,900 would basically have to go into ecology or whatever as there were difficulties but there were 2,500 with which there was no problem. So far this year, approximately 1,200 licences have been issued....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We know that but where are they?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, but we are not getting that figure down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We are not getting the figures down. It is as simple as that. One could add the Coillte licences on top with the new licences but I am taking them out. What I am saying is that there were 2,500 licences in respect of which Mr. Hayes stated there was no problem but only approximately 1,200 have been issued. If the were no problems with the other 1,300, why have they not been issued?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have a few more questions and I do not want to hog the meeting. In his opening statement, Mr. Hayes stated that 2.2 million cu. m of timber is basically licensed this year. We know that thinnings and clear-fell are included in that. Has the Department brought out a system since November to know the difference between those? If there is 2.2 million cu. m available at the moment, why are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is not on the dashboard, is it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Can it be put on the dashboard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank Mr. Hayes. If that could be put in, it would be helpful to us. I ask Mr. Dunne to brief me on the project involving Coillte and Bord na Móna currently planting on degraded bog. Do they get licences or whatever? What is the involvement of the Department in that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: How many hectares are involved in that pilot programme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am looking at it for ordinary farmers around the country. Do they have to get a licence for that? Do they have to do the usual environmental stuff?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I sent in a document to the Department as part of the questions the Chairman told us to submit. It related to a guy who planted his area and got his licence. The guy who planted the land beside his - the same ground in the same area - got a licence six months before him. Why is it that if two people whose land is side by side submit an application at the same time, one of them may get a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The whole lot was there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have seen contractors losing their machines in the past fortnight. I will call it very straight: I lay the full blame at the hands of the Department. I cannot understand how it has not considered something along the lines of the case involving Bord na Móna and An Taisce, in which the High Court ruled there is an exemption up to 30 ha. I cannot understand how the Department has not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will ask about the unenclosed land where the pilot scheme is taking place. I know Mr. Hayes said that farmers with an appropriate assessment do not get the grant aid or the yearly scheme but they do get the cost of it. Are they allowed to do the same as Bord na Móna is doing at the moment on degraded bog? My understanding is there was nobody from the forestry sector on the CAP...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Why can somebody not do the same on his or her bog, if Bord na Móna can plant on industrial bogs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Could a farmer who has 30 or 50 cows not make a valuable contribution to mitigation measures under the CAP? Will they be allowed? If the Department gives Bord na Móna a licence to do that, is it not only right and proper, if someone has 20 acres of degraded bog and gets the appropriate assessment, that he or she would be able to plant the same type of timber? I am not talking about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does the forestry sector have a representative on the committee?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The game is over. The Minister is in Brussels and whatever is going to happen with CAP will be decided this week. The game is over if we have had no one on the committee for the past three years. The CAP negotiations have been ongoing for three years and the farmer organisations have been prodding us throughout that time. It is damnable that no representative was put on the committee to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Our committee spent some time putting together a document. The Chairman can correct me if I am wrong, but we did not receive any feedback on the ideas. In fairness, every member spent a long time on it. Deputy Kehoe or another member asked about the issue of unenclosed land and what we could do about it, and there was supposed to be feedback to the committee but we got nothing. What is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: At the rate we are going, with 40 licences being issued per week, bar this week when anecdotal evidence indicates there was a push on because Mr. Hayes and his colleagues were to appear before the committee, that will not work. The committee will not take that hook, line and sinker. For several weeks, 40 licences were being issued each week and it ended up that the whole industry is in...