Results 61-80 of 23,892 for speaker:Michael Healy-Rae
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: You could make the exact same argument about people who today are planting, as I call it, solar farms. We have very good land going to-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: It is a fact. It is taking land out of productive use and using it for solar farms. Whether it is trees, solar farms or cattle or sheep, that is the market that is out there. You cannot dictate to farmers that they should do this or they have to do that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: The State is not competing in that way. We are offering an alternative to people. It is up to the landowner. Neither the Senator nor I will point a finger at a landowner and say they should do this or that with their land. That is not our say. They worked hard to own their land and the people slaved before them to own their farms. It is up to them to decide and whether they opt for a...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, it is there.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: It is not that it will be there. It is there.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: I thank the Deputy for asking the question because there is a very good answer to it. The schemes that are in place are attractive. I would argue this with the Deputy until the cows come home. People have planted the land in the past and been successful. Of course, one could pick the negative side of it. The Deputy could ask about what if the trees fell down or the forestry went on fire....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: I get the Deputy's point, and it was very well made, but, unfortunately, the facts differ from what she might like them to be. In other words, if a person sets aside 20 acres, 50 acres or whatever and decides to plant it, that land is out of productive use. As the Deputy will know, under EU rules that are strongly in place, are coming into place or will be reinforced, a farmer cannot graze...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: No, that is not the same scheme.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: That was agroforestry. It a different scheme where people can have the best of both worlds.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: They inherit the decision that was taken by the people before them. The Deputy asked whether that would change. No, it will not. That is the rule and it will not change.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: If a farmer clearfells his or her land and does not replant, then there is an obligation on him or her to replant the land. Farmers signed up for it and part-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Sorry. The new generation-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: They did but-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: It might be looked into in the future, but if the Deputy is asking me to give a commitment today that the rule will change, then I am not giving a commitment that I cannot keep because I go in straight lines-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes. The point is very well made. My answer is as follows: they inherit the decision that was taken by their mothers, fathers, aunts or uncles before them and they inherit the consequences of that decision.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, I absolutely can. I visited a farm the other day in Beaufort where there was windblow that had been extracted, the area was replanted and the person was rightfully taking on board how my Department, my senior Minister, Deputy Martin Heydon, and I gave a commitment a number of months ago that we would have a reconstitution scheme. We will have that scheme. For people who took our word...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: It will be over the next number of months.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: What has delayed us is that we cannot talk about a scheme unless we know exactly what is involved. I thank Coillte and all the other agencies that were involved in the mapping. Let me explain the mapping and the 26,000 ha that have been identified. It is not just a matter of thinking it is a certain amount of windblow. The mapping is extremely exact. We now have all of the evidence that...