Results 23,741-23,760 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: 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...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: To 2013 only, not 2012. I ask people to apply now, if they have not done so already.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: No, the scheme is open now. The Deputy, Deputy Martin and others who asked this question might not realise-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Let me finish this point. The question that the Deputy is asking is important because the answer is important. I want the message to go out clearly to people that, if they have had ash dieback and they are not happy with what has happened, I want them to at least contact us to see whether they are in the category of being entitled to more money. The committee does an awful lot of important...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: No, it is not overly complicated. The message should go out that there is money available for people in that category, and they should please come forward to see whether we can assist them and get them in line for the payment if they are entitled to it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: No. People who-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes. Different issues might have needed to be addressed, but no more than was the case for anybody applying for any payment. If people were short of something, they were encouraged to come back to us with such information. The Department worked with them. To my knowledge, everybody who was entitled to it and looked for it got it. Make the point that some of them got money and they may...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Just to be clear, at one stage, for clearing the ground, the payment was €1,000 per ha. That has now been doubled to €2,000 per ha. That is for clearing. Then there is funding for replanting it, but there is also a further €5,000 per ha for the farmer himself or herself. Farmers will not have to spend that. That can be for themselves, and it is tax free.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: They get the payment in three stages. The big thing is they get it if they apply for it. If they look for it and are entitled to it, they will get it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: It is 100% tax free.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Normally, over a three-year period. It is three years on average.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, under the current scheme. Remember, the scheme has now changed and people who came in in the past can qualify for the €5,000 per ha under the new climate action scheme.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: That is 100% correct.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, it is a one-off payment.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, it is tax free.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)
Michael Healy-Rae: I cannot argue with the Deputy’s debate because it is well founded. The Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, explained to me that, in his constituency, he had many situations where there were ash trees that had died on the side of the road. When the affected farmers go about knocking those trees, it is dangerous if it is on the roadside. We come back to farm safety, due diligence and...