Results 3,521-3,540 of 7,283 for speaker:Josepha Madigan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I am aware of the Deputies' concerns about the regulations. I did not navigate the Heritage Bill 2018 through various committees and the Dáil and all other Stages just to bring forward regulations that would be discretionary and not use them, if it was possible to do so. There was a two-year pilot scheme. Times were different from when we passed the Heritage Bill 2018 and I could see...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: The agricultural contractors. They issued a press release to welcome that it was still possible to cut hedges for road safety reasons. The Deputies know some of the reasons for the cutting of hedges along roads, lanes and boreens better than I do, as they represent rural areas. One is overgrown hedges and fallen trees narrowing the carriageway, forcing traffic into oncoming traffic flow....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: The previous Minister with responsibility for heritage issues, Deputy Humphreys, initiated the process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: One can still cut hedges.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I apologise for interrupting but I thought I had made the matter clear. Hedges can still be cut for road safety reasons.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: Nothing in the legislation prevents road safety related hedge cutting at any time of the year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: The regulations were discretionary-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I thank the committee members. It was helpful to hear all of them collectively on this subject. Deputy Ó Cuív is correct. Originally, it was a broader proposal but the original Bill did not align the road safety legislation with the Wildlife Acts. As the Deputy will be aware, that was a Government amendment. There is no good faith breach here. There is no sharp practice. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I did not interrupt Deputy Ó Cuív.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: If the Deputy wants, I will outline all the reasons again. The biodiversity debate was in its infancy then and now we know much more than we did at that stage. As the committee will be aware, the rate of biodiversity decline is frightening. I have outlined all of these reasons to the Deputy. We are the last generation that can do anything about it and I felt a responsibility in relation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: It is important to say that before the Bill, there was no cutting allowed at all in the closed season and now one can cut all year round for road safety.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: It is a fact. I got better than just August. I got a provision whereby one could cut for safety reasons the entire year round, which was not there previously.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: The reason I made the decision in relation to burning is there was no basis to allow it. On the basis of the information from Met Éireann's data, there was a very dry area during the six-month period when the burning of vegetation could have been undertaken under the law and it would not have precluded landowners from burning vegetation. Therefore, the existing provisions in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I will not indemnify anybody.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: That is not appropriate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I was going to mention the rural issues. We can leave that and come back to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: I am meeting the IFA tomorrow and I can discuss that with the association. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has ongoing engagement with the IFA with regard to designated lands and habitats. I can speak to them about that tomorrow.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: First, biodiversity is something the Government takes extremely seriously. We have approximately €60 million under the Project Ireland 2040 plan going specifically into biodiversity. As I said, I held the first biodiversity conference this year and we had 40 seeds of nature which was stemming from that. There are a number of biodiversity initiatives that we are currently...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: As for hedge cutting, there is no need to notify the local authority if a person is cutting the hedge.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Mid-Year Review: Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (2 Oct 2019)

Josepha Madigan: No, it does not. Sorry, I thought the Deputy was asking the question the other way around. With regard to the turf compensation scheme, we have about €8 million and that will be entirely spent, so any money owing will be paid.