Results 2,321-2,340 of 4,573 for speaker:Brian Leddin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: The association is getting at an issue of fairness, which is the right thing to do but is it not true that all farmers are subject to the nitrates action plan, when it is not all farmers who are contributing to the reason we have the nitrates action plan? What if I were a farmer who did not have an intensive set-up but who was being required to fulfil the needs of the action plan because of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Would the association agree the problem is largely caused by a small number of farmers in a particular part of the country where the very intensive farming is and that in most of the country, where Mr. Enright says the water quality is good, farmers are subject to the nitrates action programme even though they are not the cause of the deteriorated quality in the south and east particularly?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: On organic farming, it seems to me the challenge is farmers getting a fair price for their produce. The model in the last number of years has been the low-margin, high-volume one and that is intensive farming. There is an alternative model in the organic one. It is higher-margin and low-volume. Is this not the critical point? We want farmers to produce food. We want farmers to have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Okay. I thank our guests.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Would the association agree Bord Bia probably is not marketing the product well enough? It is getting going but is it not part of the problem that the organic product is not being marketed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: There is no national cull proposed. That is quite inflammatory language. There is no national cull proposal.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: A reduction in stocking rate, certainly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: I have a great deal of sympathy for all our guests because officials from the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Agriculture, Food and the Marine have been set a huge challenge. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage wants to see clean water and a return to pristine conditions. That is not easy. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Yes, and likewise as regards the statement I was looking at. There might have been a page missing from it. It might just be a clerical error.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: I think a page was accidentally omitted. Was the statement of the officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage as submitted?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Was it spot on?.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: My first question is for the officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. At the previous session, a very strong claim was made about wastewater. It has been addressed already but I will give the officials an opportunity to address it again. It was claimed that urban wastewater might be significantly contributing to the water quality issues we have. I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Can it be quicker?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Is it that the greater risk for the sector lies in the fact that it could lose the derogation if there is not compliance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: It is a very difficult situation in negotiations if compliance is not as it was said it would be. It is not good for Ireland to go to the European Commission and ask for another derogation if we have not met our own programme.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: I welcome our guests. I read through their opening statement, in which they say that the ICMSA is confident that water quality trends will move in the right direction in the near future. As committee members, we have the benefit of seeing in advance the statements from departmental officials who will be before the committee later and they say quite the opposite. They say that we are going...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: That terminology, "the family farm", is peppered throughout the opening statement. The ICMSA has strongly given the impression the average family farm is going to be severely impacted by the fifth nitrates action programme and the derogation but is it not true that just 5% of holdings are derogation farmers, or some 6,000 farms?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: Most of those are in the north, west and midlands.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: I am just wondering when the exam is. I feel we should perhaps be conferred with a qualification in agricultural science after this session. It has been very interesting. On the derogation, which is going to be reviewed in two years, as I understand it, is it the case that whether Ireland gets a further derogation depends on the compliance with the fifth nitrates action programme?

An Bord Pleanála: Statements (15 Sep 2022)

Brian Leddin: In a functioning planning system, despite our misgivings and frustrations with decisions, we lean on the integrity of the system. That integrity assures us that while we may disagree with the decision, it was made in good faith, with total objectivity, cognisant of all the arguments by all the stakeholders, and employing expertise and knowledge greater than our own. In a functioning system...