Results 8,441-8,460 of 23,976 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Coillte is a private limited company established under the Forestry Act 1988 and is operationally independent from my Department. I have referred the matter to Coillte for direct follow-up with the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: It is proposed to pay an Environment report grant if a report from an ecologist or archaeologist is submitted to my Department as part of an application for an afforestation licence. The aim is to increase the quality of afforestation applications as they address environmental aspects, to increase the throughput of applications by my Department and to ensure applicants and their agents...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Budgets (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The allocation for the forestry programme for 2021 was €103.424 million, of which €99.093 million was capital expenditure with €4.331 million was allocated to current expenditure. There was a total spend of €69,567 million, made up of €68,034 million in capital and €1.533 million in current. A primary reason for the Capital underspend was a...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1115 and 1116 together. The Climate Action Plan 2021 had identified an annual target of 8,000 hectares for afforestation. I do acknowledge that this is an ambitious target, given the level of planting last year. However along with Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has overall responsibility for the sector, my priority this year is on increasing the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1117 and 1119 together. My Department has, through Project Woodland, established a definition of the backlog, which is anything on hand over 120 days. Therefore, the current licences on hand, broken down by category and those over 120 days is indicated in the table below. These cohorts of applications have reduced by 29% since the end of last August, which is...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: In 2021, approvals for 502 afforestation licences for some 4,606 hectares were given for planting, while only 2,016 hectares were planted, and we do need to significantly increase this figure. There are 5,200 ha in the system, which have a valid approval, but have not gone ahead to planting. We have written to applicants with unused licences to remind them that their licence is still valid...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department published the Forestry Licensing Plan 2022, recently, which may be found here gov.ie - Forestry Licensing Plan 2022 (www.gov.ie). The targets for each of the licence types are indicated in the table below, with the weekly average shown. While the weekly overall target of forestry licences to issue is 101, this may fluctuate from week-to-week, but overall we aim to minimise...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Expenditure (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The budget allocation for Forestry for 2022 is €100,081,000. This provides for new planting, the serving of existing afforestation contracts, and payments in relation to forestry support schemes and forestry related activities. Some €5,890,411 of the Forestry budget was spent in February, and this is slightly under the profiled amount of €5,922,000. The remainder of the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Expenditure (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The expenditure under the Forestry Budget for the month of February this year and last is shown in the table below: Expenditure by the Forest Service, DAFM - the month of February 2022 versus February 2021 Month Feb-21 Feb-22 Expenditure €5,652,063 €5,890,410 The spending in February this year is in excess of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Traveller Community (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Urban horse welfare programmes supported by my Department are relevant to recommendations under the chapters on both Education and Health in the Programme for Government. Since 2015, in cooperation with local authorities and other government agencies, my Department has supported urban horse projects, with expenditure amounting to a total of €1,622,000. In keeping with government...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I wish to inform the Deputy that the Agriculture Appeals Office operates independently of my Department. I have been advised that, following conversation with the legal representatives of the person-named, the Director of Agriculture Appeals has assigned the matter to an Appeals Officer for review. The Agriculture Appeals Office will be in contact with the person-named in due course to...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The persons named were approved to GLAS 1 with a contract commencement date of 1stOctober 2015. Processing of the 2021 Advance Payment for the persons named are at an advanced stage and I expect the payment in this case to be finalised shortly. GLAS payments are continuing on a weekly basis as applications pass all validation checks and are approved for payment.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: A review has been initiated in this case and is currently being processed. The person named will be informed of the outcome as soon as it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Land Issues (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Following a review announced in Budget 2018 by my colleague the Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe TD, and in recognition of the then Government's commitment to facilitate the development of solar energy projects in Ireland, a revised approach was introduced to qualifying agricultural property for the purposes of agricultural relief from Capital Acquisitions Tax or Capital Gains Tax...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: World Economic Forum (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I wish to advise the Deputy that neither myself nor officials from my Department have engaged in any form of communication with the World Economic Forum or representatives of the World Economic forum from 1st January 2019 to date.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: All payments under the GLAS scheme are currently up to date in this case.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1131 and 1132 together. The attached table details, per county, the number of bovine TB tests carried out, the number of reactor animals, the number of animals whose test result was inconclusive and the number of animals that tested negative under the Bovine TB Eradication Programme in 2019, 2020 and 2021. This disease causes untold hardship for farmers and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The detailed information requested by the Deputy is being assembled and will be forwarded to him as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I am acutely aware of the challenges facing farmers with regard to very significantly increased input costs, arising from the impact of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. At an emergency Agriculture Council on 2nd March, I joined colleagues from across the EU in highlighting concerns about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, food security across Europe, and the availability and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Reports (22 Mar 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Implementation of the Mackinnon report is well underway through Project Woodland, which was established by, Minister of State Pippa Hackett, a year ago to improve the licensing system and deal with the backlog, and to drive forward the planting of trees under a shared vision for forestry in Ireland. I am pleased to report that significant progress has been made. All recommendations are...