Results 621-640 of 4,825 for speaker:Martin Heydon
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: A total sum of €143 million is a-----
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: It is a significant portion. I think it is around 20%, is it?
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: It actually represents the €143 million in 2025 of the €260 million in the ACRES allocation. That is a €30 million increase.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: Where we are at is the continuation of ACRES. Additional funding is required. It should be noted that in 2024, the payment total is inflated as it includes significant carryover from 2023, as the Deputy has outlined.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: I will ask Mr. Conroy to speak on last year's funding.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: The truth is that if I am successful in a new approach and a new range of measures, we will actually see an increase in reactors in the short term over the first two years, but we need to do that because at present our current testing model and approach to TB eradication is leaving some of the disease behind, and it is identified later in the factories or beyond.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: To be successful, we need to front-load some of that pain. We need to layer in a range of different measures, including increased blood testing of the highest risk cohorts which stay on the farm longer, which are generally females over 18 months. That testing will front-load some of that pain. It will identify more reactors and will require more compensation for the farmers affected.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: It will not see a significant increase in herds affected, which is really important, but it will require more money in the short term.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: Yes. We are only a part funder of that.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: The Departments of justice, Transport and Health do, too.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: No. That would be different from Rosslare.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: Obviously I set an ambitious target here. We changed the structures inside it and I gave extra supports to my officials in Wexford to try to get through this and get farmers paid as quickly as possible. When I came into this job on 23 January, we had 14,500 farmers unpaid historically. That was not acceptable to me. With 1,700 of them cleared last week, we now have it down to 2,961...
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: Some are outside of our control. With issues such as title deed, the challenge is not on our side. I am not taking my foot off the gas and we have made significant progress in recent weeks. I understand that if you are one of those 2,961, even though it is a much-reduced figure from 14,500 when I came into this role, it is still cold comfort because you have not been sorted. We are doing...
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: TAMS in general has been popular among farmers. We are seeing significant drawdowns. I have to manage that budget to the end of 2027. Tranches 6, 7 and 8 have a 100% approval rate for valid applications. The enhanced grant aid for nutrient storage investments was opened to applications in January. There is 60% grant aid, up from the current 40%. We do not have a figure for that, do we?
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: Regarding the knowledge transfer, the scheme was only coming on board in 2024, so it commenced in 2025, with a first round of payments issuing to farmers in March, with payments to adviser participants issuing shortly. The scheduling affected the flow of the money. The other question was about forgotten farmers.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: This has been a long-standing commitment where I want to put all the legacy issues to bed. Since the Department was first approached with regard to the group commonly referred to as forgotten farmers, who are defined as young farmers who were under the age of 40 in 2015 and established their holdings prior to 2008, I opened a public consultation process for people to put themselves forward....
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: I said clearly that I have €5 million budgeted for this year. We do not know how many farmers come under this. They have to put themselves forward first. Once they do, we will examine them on a case-by-case basis and see if they qualify. Of course I will publish the figures of people who qualify in this regard. The process I am going through now is to see if there is enough in the...
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: No. It was an opportunity for farmers to put themselves forward to see if they qualify. That is the first step that we had to take. We will go through those cases and that will give us a good sense of what we can do this year.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: Not necessarily, but we have to examine those who put themselves forward first.
- Select Committee on Agriculture and Food: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Further Revised) (18 Jun 2025) Martin Heydon: I have €5 million in my budget this year so I will absolutely spend that.