Results 41-60 of 8,158 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The last question is on fertiliser. There is €50 per tonne coming in on fertiliser. Does Europe not understand that farmers will be crippled by that? I will finish with that because I want to get in as much as possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is the Commissioner saying that if the amount is 5% or 6% every year, the break does not come in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Commissioner.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I want to get in as much as I can. First, I thank Mr. Šefovi for coming. Can he explain one thing on the trade deal? When is the movement of the products going to happen? Has it happened already or will it be when it is ratified by the EU?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am talking about the trade deal. When do the products go over and back tariff free? Are they moving already or is it when they are ratified? The second question is on the 10%. My understanding in reading it is that if beef reduced by 8% in a year, it does not kick in, and if that happened over four or five years, it still does not kick in because it is under the 10% each year. Clarify...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The last question is on fertiliser. There is €50 per tonne coming in on fertiliser. Does Europe not understand that farmers will be crippled by that? I will finish with that because I want to get in as much as possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is the Commissioner saying that if the amount is 5% or 6% every year, the break does not come in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency: Mr. Maroš Šefovi (2 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Commissioner.

Investment in Sport and Sporting Infrastructure: Statements (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Sports capital grants have done great things in small communities right around the country. I remember playing football and togging out in places they would not tog out in nowadays. It is incredible what it has done. With the population increasing and different sports coming into play, more money should be put in to attract young people to get more of them involved in sport. The budgets...

Situation in Gaza: Statements (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. When we were growing up, long before we were in politics, we looked at the news at night and saw the United Nations and said to ourselves, God they are powerful men in suits. We looked at the G7 or the G8 - whatever you want to call it - and said, my God, they are going to solve the problems of the world. To look at the atrocities going on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for coming in. My first question is for Teagasc. Mr. Spink mentioned new markets. What is the value of the market last year, this year and the year before that? How much value, in additional millions of euro, has Teagasc created for tillage farmers through distilleries and so on through higher prices?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is the point in the usual palaver of talking about markets? It is pounds, shillings and pence that farmers need in their pockets, not talk about new markets that is not delivering. Where are the markets if Teagasc has said it has done the work on them and got them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Mr. Spink realise that at the moment-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: -----the dairymen are not coming in knocking on the door? The beef man is not coming in because, thankfully, the price is good. Farmers are busy and they only look for a fair price when they are in trouble. Let no one cod themselves about the fact that the tillage sector is in trouble at the moment. We are going to lose tillage farmers. I have questions for the Department. Under the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I draw Ms Byrne's attention to the clock.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, I know that. Ms Byrne talks about opportunities for farmers. Unless I heard it wrong, we are losing a farmer every week out of tillage. Is that correct? That is not an opportunity, it is a loss. I say that just so Ms Byrne understands it. I understand that grain must come in because we do not have enough in this country. At the moment, she is talking about increasing tillage at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Could someone answer the Bord Bia one on genetically modified products?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have just one question. It is probably not the Department’s area but Europe’s. How in God’s name can someone know in a third country whether somebody spread X, Y and Z on the grain when it is landing in on a boat here three or four months later?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: There are many things people are not supposed to do in some of those countries, no more than with tagging cattle, traceability and all of that. Sure, it is loolah what goes on in some of those countries, but Europe is closing its eyes to it. Yes, they will sign up to an agreement. I think what the Mercosur agreement said is that the only way a country can be thrown out of it is if it gets...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Challenges Facing the Tillage Industry: Discussion (1 Oct 2025)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Let no one say it is any different in any other thing they are growing.