Results 3,801-3,820 of 16,057 for speaker:Mary Coughlan

Written Answers — Departmental Funding: Departmental Funding (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: FIRM, the food institutional research measure, is a public good food research programme funded under the National Development Plan 2000-2006. Calls for proposals have issued periodically since 2000 and a total of €63 million in funding has been awarded for 137 projects under a variety of research themes. I am convinced that high quality food research, which creates new knowledge and...

Written Answers — Forestry Sector: Forestry Sector (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The forestry sector provides a high value input to the national economy, and makes a significant contribution to the economic well being of rural communities. It is estimated that the forestry sector contributes some €698 million annually to the economy. In addition, the value of the non-timber benefits of Irish forests has been estimated as being of the order of at least €88 million...

Written Answers — Farm Waste Management: Farm Waste Management (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 63, 98, 100 and 112 together. Following receipt of the required EU approval, the revised farm waste management scheme was launched by my Department on 24 March 2006. Application forms, together with the accompanying terms and conditions, are available from the local agricultural environment and structures, AES, offices of my Department and are also available...

Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 64, 73, 80, 118, 120 and 123 together. The position is that 17,500 farmers submitted applications to the national reserve but when account is taken of the number of farmers who applied under two or more categories over 23,000 files have to be processed. While much work has been done in processing the vast majority of the applications, none of the applications...

Written Answers — Rural Environment Protection Scheme: Rural Environment Protection Scheme (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: REPS 3 has been a major success and participation has broken previous records. Spending on REPS grew from €208 million in 2004 to €283 million in 2005, and provision has been made in the 2006 Estimates for a further increase to €323 million this year. The increased allocation for 2006 reflects the fact that I expect that there will be further significant growth in participation levels...

Written Answers — Infectious Diseases: Infectious Diseases (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 66, 86 and 116 together. In view of the role played by wild birds in spreading the avian flu virus, my Department's focus is on the early detection of any introduction of the disease in wild birds, minimising the risk of any subsequent transmission to the commercial poultry flock and in the event of such a transmission, the efficient management of the...

Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 67 and 83 together. One of my main objectives since assuming office as Minister for Agriculture and Food was to ensure the efficient implementation of the decoupled single payment scheme — the most significant change to agricultural support since our accession to the European Community. This huge task was successfully implemented when over €1 billion in...

Written Answers — Dairy Industry: Dairy Industry (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The Irish dairy industry continues to contribute very substantially to the national economy, with an annual output value of €2.3 billion. Irish dairy exports performed exceptionally well in 2005 amounting to €1.82 billion. This is a very positive performance given the downward adjustments to market management supports brought about by the implementation of the Luxembourg agreement on the...

Written Answers — Vaccination Programme: Vaccination Programme (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: Vaccination of bovines for tuberculosis is not allowed in EU member states and accordingly I have no proposals to introduce such vaccination as part of the tuberculosis eradication scheme here. However, my Department is currently seeking to develop a vaccine for badgers. It accepted that the availability of such a vaccine is a prerequisite if eradication of tuberculosis from the cattle...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The implementation of the nitrates directive is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. My own Department has worked closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government throughout the lengthy consultation process leading to the development of the nitrates action programme and the regulations. In December,...

Written Answers — Food Labelling: Food Labelling (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The report to which the Deputy refers was an internal report of the FSAI on an audit to determine compliance with labelling and traceability requirements. The FSAI undertook this audit to determine whether food business operators in the fish, beef and poultry industries have in place a system of product traceability and recall. The FSAI copied to my Department the findings in the report that...

Written Answers — Food Agency Co-operation Council: Food Agency Co-operation Council (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The Food Agency Co-operation Council has met on 20 occasions since its inception in 2000. During 2004 and 2005 priority was given instead to meetings of the food development agencies directly concerned with the food programme components of the National Development Plan 2000-2006. Two such meetings took place in 2004 and one in 2005 to assess progress on the plan in preparation for meetings of...

Written Answers — Genetically Modified Organisms: Genetically Modified Organisms (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: In May 2005 a consignment of 2,500 tonne of maize gluten, which tested positive for the presence of the unauthorised GM event BT10, was imported into Ireland. My Department had received prior notification from the importer, while the material was in transit, that samples of the feed material had tested positive, in a US laboratory, for the presence of the unauthorised GM event. The material...

Written Answers — Live Exports: Live Exports (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: Trade in sheep between member states of the European Union is subject to the provisions of Council Directive 91/68/EEC, as amended, which provides reinforced controls on the movement of sheep and goats. Until very recently, these controls provided, as a minimum requirement, that breeding and fattening sheep had to be certified by an official veterinarian as having been continuously resident...

Written Answers — Milk Quota: Milk Quota (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 77, 87, 90, 113, 121 and 133 together. I recently announced my intention to move to a more open market system for transferring milk quota which will come into effect on 1 April 2007. I made this decision because the current restructuring model will not meet the future needs of the industry and a more effective response is required in order to meet future...

Written Answers — Seed Potato Sector: Seed Potato Sector (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: In August 2005 I announced a grant aid programme for the development of the seed potato sector. The programme, which comes under the national development plan, funds capital investment projects for specialised seed production in 2005-2006. A grant package of 35% applies under the scheme. The main objective of the scheme is to improve the marketing infrastructure of the seed...

Written Answers — Bio-Energy Crops: Bio-Energy Crops (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 117, 134, 226, 236 and 237 together. Interest in the growing of energy crops is dependent on the demand for biofuels, the promotion of which is primarily the responsibility of the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. Nonetheless the development of the biofuels sector is a matter that impinges on several policy areas...

Written Answers — Beef Exports: Beef Exports (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The Irish beef industry is worth €1.3 billion in foreign earnings to the national economy annually. Ireland produced 524,000 tonnes of beef in 2005, exporting 487,000 tonnes, which represents 93% of our production. Ireland is the number one exporter of beef into Europe where there is a widening gap between consumption and production resulting in an EU import requirement of an estimated...

Written Answers — Animal Remedies Regulations: Animal Remedies Regulations (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: The Deputy will be aware that the Animal Remedies Regulations 2005, SI 734 of 2005, were signed into law on 17 November 2005. The relevant EU legislation provided for the adoption of criteria for exempting categories of medicines from the general mandatory rule that all medicines for food producing animals should be brought under veterinary prescription control. The draft exemption criteria,...

Written Answers — Animal Welfare: Animal Welfare (29 Mar 2006)

Mary Coughlan: There is already a long history of co-operation between the administrations North and South on animal health issues. The administrations have traditionally shared information at local and national levels on disease control and surveillance issues and have worked together to combat illegal movements of animals and animal products. The foot and mouth emergency of 2001 is a testament to the...