Results 23,801-23,820 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: No, but-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: No. I have to be straight about this now. What the Senator said is totally inaccurate. Does she know what we are talking about when we speak about peat?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: Does she know what I mean by peaty soils?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: I just wanted to be clear because if she were clear about that, she would not have asked me the question she asked because she would have already known the answer. The answer is that peaty soils contain a mineral mixed with peat, and we encourage people to plant on that type of ground. We do not allow people to plant on deep peat. We will never allow that. We are not looking for people to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, and there was a report issued to this committee before the Deputy's time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: It was widespread all over Europe. Nobody brought it in. It went everywhere.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: The Deputy does realise that we have excellent companies such as None-So-Hardy that grow plants for hedgerows and grow our plants for our forestries, both for Coillte and for private use. These people are operating to excellent standards. The one thing we would not want to happen at a committee like this is to put any insinuation out there that the people-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: It is long before the Deputy's time as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: The report was given to this committee before he was here. It was a comprehensive report about exactly what happened and how it happened and it was presented to the previous Chairperson of this committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: If you could, Chairperson. That is a very helpful suggestion, that all members would get that report to see exactly what happened at that time, because the Deputy asks a very important question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: No. Because of the checks and balances that are there at present, I am very confident, in the same way I would be about anything. The night before Storm Éowyn, was I expecting it to come along and knock down 26,000 ha of timber across the country? I was not, but you can only-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: I will ask Barry Delany to answer that question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, absolutely. Legislation will be changed as required. Again, I compliment the Minister, Darragh O'Brien, and others on the work they have been doing in this regard. A special task force committee has been set up to deal with this matter, and over the coming months the necessary changes will be put in place to allow for us to protect more our corridor while also not forgetting the very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: The Deputy is aware that the system of payments to private landowners - to farmers - is completely different from that relating to companies. It is far more lucrative to a farmer than to a company if the former wants to avail of the schemes, so the Deputy cannot say we are encouraging what we will call private investment companies or anything like that. Yes, if they make a commercial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: I will give a straight answer to a question. No, but I will tell the Deputy why. The reason I will not meet them is quite simply because it has gone through the process. I do not want to meet them and give them false hope that I can change something. Coillte and the people involved went through the necessary procedures. They went through the appeals. The Deputy said the council was not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: We have launched a communications plan for 2025 to actively promote the various programmes with more than €1 million invested in our own communications. I will give an example. Last Monday, in Beaufort, County Kerry, I did a promotional video with the farmer involved. I asked him questions and he gave me answers. We are going to put that out there. The Deputy knows the value of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: I will put it this way. There are ill-informed people out there being negative about forestry, including some people who consider themselves leading scientists who talk about peaty soils, and they not knowing one end of a bog from the other in many circumstances. If I could convince those people to see common sense, they would understand it is a lot better for us to grow trees in Ireland...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: If I had a crystal ball I could give the Deputy the numbers for next weekend's lotto.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: I will let Mr. Delany answer that because there is money involved and I know he can explain.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Ash Dieback and Other Forestry Issues: Discussion (16 Jul 2025)

Michael Healy-Rae: That is a very tricky thing. That would go back to the Department of public expenditure. There are a lot of ins and outs before we could reach an agreement on something like that.