Results 3,461-3,480 of 3,729 for speaker:Martin Heydon

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Diseases (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this really important issue. Our livestock sector faces ever-increasing animal health threats. Diseases such as bluetongue threaten our cattle and sheep. I take the threat of bluetongue virus, BTV, very seriously. My Department carries out post-entry sampling of all ruminant animals and camelids from mainland Europe for BTV regardless of the bluetongue...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Diseases (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: We have enhanced biosecurity measures at our ports for vehicles coming in. Ireland is currently BTV free. An outbreak of BTV in Ireland would have a significant impact on animal welfare, the Irish livestock sector and trade. It is important to state that Bluetongue does not impact human health or food safety. However, the bluetongue virus serotype 3, BTV-3, has spread widely across...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Diseases (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: On the last point, as I outlined, there is no vaccine for BTV-12 but there is one for BTV-3 and that remains under consideration. On the Deputy's main point, the answer is that we are doing everything we can to try to keep this out. Obviously, we are not importing risk animals from risk areas. There is a risk, at the height of the season in high summer, of midges travelling over themselves...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: Deputy Aird and I attended the Irish Grain Growers AGM earlier this year, where we heard at first hand the challenges and opportunities for the tillage sector, which is an integral part of Irish farming and makes a significant contribution to overall agricultural output. The Government recognises the importance of the tillage sector and wants to grow the area under tillage crops in the years...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I will go down to visit the flour mill and Deputy Byrne can get me a couple of boxes of Wexford wine while we are there.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: At the Mallow festival, I was presented with Wexford wine and it was very impressive. I am delighted to see that market go from strength to strength. The programme for Government includes support for the development of knock-on industries from the tillage sector. That value-added factor is important, in addition to the basic fundamental of the sector that Deputy Aird articulated so...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tillage Sector (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I could not agree more. I have said previously in the House that I see agriculture as a gearbox within which all the different enterprises, including tillage, dairy, beef, sheep and pigs, are interlinked and interdependent. Should one sector of that gearbox stop working, it impacts on everything else. Tillage is a key component of that. The sector has been through a tough time. To be a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: When I came into this role ten weeks ago, I looked at the situation with ACRES. It is unacceptable that 2,800 of the farmers who signed up to a contract back in 2023 have still not had their applications processed and that there are problems with the system. In 2024, there were 14,500 farmers who had not had their advance payments issued. That was unacceptable. I worked with the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: There is no doubt that, when a new agri-environmental scheme commences at the start of a CAP process, it brings a lot of teething problems. I remember that GLAS in 2015 struggled in that first year. It is a big undertaking. We had a number of different measures coming together at this one time. Let me be clear. While I am pointing to the momentum I have managed to build in this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (2 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Deputy is articulating the frustration that is felt by many farmers across the country. The points he raised are not ones I am hearing for the first time. We will have the Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2026, and in my determination as Minister, right at the time of the AGRIFISH Council when the other 26 ministers for agriculture are all looking to agree the new CAP, Ireland...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Grant Payments (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I propose to take Questions Nos. 586 and 590 together. The person named was accepted into ACRES General Tranche 1, with a contract commencement date of January 1st 2023. An advance payment of €6,214.23 issued to the herd owner in December 2023 in respect of their participation in the Scheme in 2023. My Department has identified the cause of the issue that has been preventing this...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: Irish Grass Fed Beef PGI was registered by the European Commission on 27th November 2023. The PGI is on an all-island basis representing farmers and processors north and south, with Bord Bia as the applicant on behalf of producers and processors here, and their counterpart the Livestock and Meat Commission as the applicant in Northern Ireland. Since registration, my Department and Bord...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Investigations (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: My Department provides a variety of extensive supports as part of the Bovine Viral Diarrheal (BVD) eradication programme. Among these are financial supports to farmers in respect of herds that disclose one or more animals with BVD test positive or inconclusive test result. The financial support available is: - For Dairy breeds animals: €160 if the dairy female or dairy cross...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Grant Payments (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: In acknowledgement of the urgency of support required following Storm Eowyn, I opened a new TAMS 3 tranche for a three-week period to deal specifically with storm-related damage on farms. This tranche opened on 7 March 2025, and closed on 28 March 2025. The specific items in respect of which applications were accepted over this three-week period are as follows:Backup PTO Generators (this...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Marine Protected Areas (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: In 2018, a transition period to a ban on vessels over 18 metres trawling in inshore waters, inside the six nautical mile zone and the baselines, was announced. This measure, however, was the subject of extended legal proceedings resulting in the measure being overturned in 2023. In 2024, over a period of eight weeks, the Minister held a new public consultation on a review of trawling...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Grant Payments (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Women Farmers Capital Investment Scheme is one of ten measures in the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3), which provides grants to farmers to build and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. A standard grant rate of 40% is provided for all eligible investments in TAMS 3, with an enhanced 60% rate available to women farmers who...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Grant Payments (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The person named submitted an application under the 2024 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers scheme. This application was selected as part of the required 10% of applications where an on-the-spot-check is carried out to verify that the young farmer applicant can demonstrate full financial and managerial control of the agricultural holding, as required under the Terms and Conditions...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Grant Payments (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: The person named was accepted into ACRES General Tranche 1, with a contract commencement date of January 1st 2023. I can confirm that all ACRES payments in respect of 2023 have been finalised for this participant. The advance payment claim associated with this herd in respect of 2024 has not yet cleared all the necessary pre-payment validation checks. My Department is actively working to...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Policies (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: I propose to take Questions Nos. 595, 596 and 619 together. My Department officials are in regular contact with the ESB, particularly in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. On 5th February 2025, a decision was made by Government to request ESB Networks to develop a Winter 2025 Grid Resilience Plan. A key component of this plan will be the requirement to safeguard the electrical...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (1 Apr 2025)

Martin Heydon: My Department is committed to meeting the Farmers' Charter timelines for the processing of all forestry applications, namely, that applications will be completed within six months in the case of files screened out from environmental assessment, and within nine months in the case of those screened in for environmental assessment. My Department has issued 527 licences so far this year. Last...