Results 4,021-4,040 of 7,789 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I sent in a document to the Department as part of the questions the Chairman told us to submit. It related to a guy who planted his area and got his licence. The guy who planted the land beside his - the same ground in the same area - got a licence six months before him. Why is it that if two people whose land is side by side submit an application at the same time, one of them may get a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The whole lot was there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have seen contractors losing their machines in the past fortnight. I will call it very straight: I lay the full blame at the hands of the Department. I cannot understand how it has not considered something along the lines of the case involving Bord na Móna and An Taisce, in which the High Court ruled there is an exemption up to 30 ha. I cannot understand how the Department has not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will ask about the unenclosed land where the pilot scheme is taking place. I know Mr. Hayes said that farmers with an appropriate assessment do not get the grant aid or the yearly scheme but they do get the cost of it. Are they allowed to do the same as Bord na Móna is doing at the moment on degraded bog? My understanding is there was nobody from the forestry sector on the CAP...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Why can somebody not do the same on his or her bog, if Bord na Móna can plant on industrial bogs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Could a farmer who has 30 or 50 cows not make a valuable contribution to mitigation measures under the CAP? Will they be allowed? If the Department gives Bord na Móna a licence to do that, is it not only right and proper, if someone has 20 acres of degraded bog and gets the appropriate assessment, that he or she would be able to plant the same type of timber? I am not talking about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does the forestry sector have a representative on the committee?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The game is over. The Minister is in Brussels and whatever is going to happen with CAP will be decided this week. The game is over if we have had no one on the committee for the past three years. The CAP negotiations have been ongoing for three years and the farmer organisations have been prodding us throughout that time. It is damnable that no representative was put on the committee to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Our committee spent some time putting together a document. The Chairman can correct me if I am wrong, but we did not receive any feedback on the ideas. In fairness, every member spent a long time on it. Deputy Kehoe or another member asked about the issue of unenclosed land and what we could do about it, and there was supposed to be feedback to the committee but we got nothing. What is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: At the rate we are going, with 40 licences being issued per week, bar this week when anecdotal evidence indicates there was a push on because Mr. Hayes and his colleagues were to appear before the committee, that will not work. The committee will not take that hook, line and sinker. For several weeks, 40 licences were being issued each week and it ended up that the whole industry is in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Issues: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (27 May 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It was submitted to the Department as part of the questions, so I do not want to hear Mr. Hayes saying he does not know about it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank all the organisations. I have a couple of quick-fire questions. On capping payments, I heard the INHFA say €60,000, and I think Macra na Feirme said €60,000, as did the ICSA. What do the IFA and ICMSA think the top-line figure should be under CAP?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Can I ask a question on that? If I run a business that is getting bigger, I either take on a person or I do not, the way I would have a farm labourer, or if I do contracting and if I need someone wrapping and I have to take them on, because I have to work for them, why would you be including the farm labourer?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: You get an allowance from your tax and all that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Well, if you can afford to pay someone else why-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am talking about the farmers themselves. They deserve to make a living. Nobody disputes that. However, is the witness talking about another neighbour unit along with that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I do not actually agree with that part. However, we will agree to differ. On Macra na Feirme, Mr. Keane said he agreed with the €60,000 cap. The only problem at the moment, as he will be aware, is that young farmers, many of whom are happy enough, can go only to 90 ha and get €22,500, plus the top-up. That brings them to about €27,500 or €28,000. Where does...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We were talking to the Department this morning, and on the issue of the so-called forgotten farmer, which I know the witnesses have followed up, including Macra na Feirme, the Department said there is a commitment in the programme for Government and that it intends to sort out the forgotten farmer. I say that just as a note of interest. I have one question for all of the witnesses. Have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am asking the whole lot of them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Discussion (9 Jun 2021)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We must devise a system whereby what I call the armchair farmer cannot be condoned going forward because a person has to be farming to be able to get payments. I said it earlier to the officials from the Department but I remember asking a question in the Dáil when Brexit was in full swing and the Tánaiste stated the Government would bring it up if there was a deficit. We must...