Results 5,481-5,500 of 23,976 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agrifood Sector (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: The importance of the UK market to the agrifood sector has been well rehearsed. Some €4.5 billion in agrifood exports, including more than 50% of our beef and one third of our dairy exports, go to the United Kingdom. Of concern is a recent report that indicated that almost 80% of employment in the food and beverages sector was based outside Dublin. As well as the need for as strong...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agrifood Sector (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: As proposals are being discussed and developed, jobs are being lost in the mushroom industry. The Minister will be aware that 700 jobs have been already lost in this sector. What we need are responses now and not discussions on what might happen in the future. There is an immediate crisis in this sector. The mushroom sector is at the cliff face of that crisis. It is not good enough for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: 3. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide operational details on the new SBCI agrifund; if he will provide a breakdown of funding sources and financial providers that will loan moneys to farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32462/16]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: I ask the Minister to provide the operational details of the new Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland agrifund, including a breakdown of funding sources and also the financial providers who will lend money to farmers.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: There is a real dearth of detail in the Minister's reply on the start date and the criteria which will be in place for farmers who apply. I note the extent of the income pressure on farmers in the past week. We see it in beef and tillage at the moment and have seen it in the past year in the dairy sector and the mushroom sector.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: When exactly will it start?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: The Minister said early 2017. We will hold the Minister to the early January 2017 date. It is much too late, however, because action is needed now. There is a real crisis in incomes across the farming sector and the support is not there for it as we speak. The Minister has also failed to provide detail today on the exact criteria to be met in order to apply for these loans. Will people...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: Will a specific fund be put in place for tillage farmers now? In fairness, they need a crisis fund, not more loans.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: A tender will be issued to commercial banks, such as AIB and Bank of Ireland, to apply for the scheme. It will be Fianna Fáil's position that the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland should instead be licensed to provide funding directly to farmers and small businesses, in cases where they apply for separate funds. The dearth of information continues. There is a total lack of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland Funding (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: The Minister could have asked for an exemption.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: 9. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on payment levels for farmers under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32323/16]

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: The question seeks to ascertain the Minister's views on payment levels to farmers under the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: In February 2015, when the Minister's predecessor, the current Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, first announced the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, he indicated that €1.45 billion would be allocated specifically to it until the current Common Agriculture Policy programme expires at the end of 2020. As the Minister pointed...

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: As I stated, when the Minister's predecessor announced the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme in February 2015, he specifically stated €1.45 billion would be allocated to GLAS by the end of 2020.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: No, if the Minister checks, he will find that his predecessor stated €1.45 billion would be allocated by the end of 2020. That commitment garnered big headlines for the previous Minister. The Minister is now telling me that this was a bluff, that the then Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, was engaged in headline grabbing and that the money will not now reach farmers until some time in...

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: If I told the Minister I would employ him for six years at a salary of €145,000 up to the end of 2020, and I then came along and told him two or three years later he would still get the €145,000 but not until 2022 or 2023, he would not be very happy. That is what he is saying to farmers.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: Farmers are losing income because of the failure of the Government to follow through on its commitment under the rural development programme up to the end of 2020.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: It is the Department that has the misinformation.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: The Minister, Deputy Coveney, made a provision. The Minister, Deputy Creed, is saying that is not accurate.

Other Questions: GLAS Expenditure (27 Oct 2016)

Charlie McConalogue: The Minister is bluffing farmers.