Results 23,861-23,880 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: They could do them around borders and different things.

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.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: Yes, and I will just briefly answer the Deputy on that point.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: I want to say one thing to the Deputy. I thank him for his last statement. Does he know why he made that statement about him valuing planting on peaty-type soils?

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

Michael Healy-Rae: Will I tell him why he made this statement?

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

Michael Healy-Rae: It was because he knows the difference in the ground. He knows mineral ground, topsoil and bog. I will put a big question mark on this, though. Does the Deputy know that leading scientists in this country are talking about bog and they know nothing about bog? Deputy Aird knows what he is talking about though and he is not a scientist at all.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: We do not want any break. It is only now that we are opening up.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: It is 400 trees per hectare. That is what a farmer would be obliged to plant. Of course, when the trees develop and grow, the farmer is entitled to thin them further. It is a good scheme if it suits individual farmers because of the fact they can continue to graze their animals. I have visited places where it has been done in the past before there was actually a proper scheme in place for...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: First, no ash trees are being planted anywhere in Europe now, so whatever type of trees they are, they are not ash. They might be planting oak or something else. The Deputy is 100% right that, considering the lessons we have learned, no trees should be planted on roadsides. The Deputy asked if I have responsibility for trees growing on our roadsides. No, I do not. My responsibility is...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: There is now the winter resilience programme, which is gearing up to make sure we do not finish up in situations like those the people of Brosna had to endure, which were horrible and beyond belief. They were trapped in their homes with no power, no heat and no anything. The winter resilience programme will come forward with outcomes as to what the passage should be. That will be my...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: Changes have been made with regard to the land types that can be used. As the Deputy knows from his work experience, much of the land that could be planted before cannot be planted now because of different regulations and guidelines. What people can do at all times is plant land that has 30 cm of peat on top. There is this idea of encouraging people to stay away from certain types of soil...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: I am delighted the Senator has asked the question. Last night, I read the press release that the Climate Change Advisory Council issued. I had it in my hand and I thought that it was a disgrace because it is wrong, it is inaccurate and it is misleading. I have told others this already but I am going to say it again. What they actually did in that statement was they repeated - I do not...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: I am here to defend myself. I saw what they said today about me on page 12 of the Irish Independent and they were bloody well wrong. I am entitled to say that.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: I am going to focus on another thing they said that was wrong and highly inaccurate. When talking about carbon emissions, if we go back to the 1970s and 1980s, when we planted trees, we were sinking carbon into the ground. We were doing what we call a good thing. When harvesting that timber now, it might be creating emissions in a way that we do not want or is not good. However, when we...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: I will be as quick as I can. With regard to the great work Teagasc is doing in studying and researching exactly what happened concerning ash dieback, the Chair has agreed to provide a report commissioned and given to a previous Oireachtas committee. The committee will have all the detail on that work. That work is continuing to this day. I thank Teagasc for its great work. On protecting...

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

Michael Healy-Rae: It still has to go through a process. The Cathaoirleach is dead right-----

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

Michael Healy-Rae: More of them are straightforward and simple. I visited the people dealing with the applications. I have every confidence they are putting their hearts and souls into it. They know people have gone through the trauma of having their forests die. They are working diligently. They know how important the new scheme is to people. It is four months on average.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: Correct.

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

Michael Healy-Rae: In getting the compensation package, it was an enormous amount of money, and that was one of the conditions put there by the Department of public expenditure. That is what it is. We cannot change that.