Results 5,981-6,000 of 18,461 for speaker:Brendan Smith
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The herd number in question has been registered in the name of the person named since 16 May 2002. The person named submitted applications under the Single Payment Scheme and Disadvantaged Areas Scheme in respect of each of the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and has been fully paid in respect of each application. The applicant applied for and was allocated a top-up...
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The person concerned is an applicant under the Farm Waste Management Scheme. The first two instalments of grant-aid have been paid by my Department to the applicant and the final instalment will be paid in January 2011. I have also announced that a special ex-gratia payment not exceeding 3.5 per cent of the value of the deferred amount will be made to farmers whose Farm Waste Management...
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The person named applied has 11 animals for consideration under the 2009 Suckler Welfare Scheme. It is a condition of this Scheme that for herds of more than 10 cows the calves must be weaned in at least two separate groups with each group being removed at a minimum interval of five days. The person named did not comply with this condition and, therefore, is not eligible for payment, as per...
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The person named has 24 animals for consideration under the 2009 Suckler Welfare Scheme. It is a condition of this Scheme that for herds of more than 10 cows the calves must be weaned in at least two separate groups with each group being removed at a minimum interval of five days. Payment has not issued as the person named provided the same weaning date for all the animals. However, the...
- Written Answers — Milk Quota: Milk Quota (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The closing date for receipt of applications to the New Entrants Scheme was in fact 9 April 2010. A total of 82 applications was referred to the independent assessment group for adjudication. The group has recently concluded its deliberations and I hope to be in a position to make an announcement shortly.
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: Arrangements are currently at an advanced stage in my Department to allow the balancing payments due under the Upland Sheep Payment to issue to beneficiaries very shortly.
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The payment belonging to the person named is at an advanced stage of processing and he will be advised of the outcome shortly.
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: My officials have written to the person named requesting that documentation be submitted. The documentation has not yet been received and my officials have been in contact with the applicant's planner with a view to resolving the matter.
- Written Answers — Grant Payments: Grant Payments (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: Payment to the person named will issue within two weeks.
- Written Answers — Rural Environment Protection Scheme: Rural Environment Protection Scheme (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The details requested are set out in the tabular statement attached. The acceptance of REPS 4 applications is governed by EU Regulations which require exhaustive administrative checks and on-the-spot inspections. In a significant number of the applications received, the administrative checks raised issues and queries which required further detailed examination. My Department's staff have...
- Written Answers — Rural Environment Protection Scheme: Rural Environment Protection Scheme (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The majority of farmers who applied for REPS 4 were former participants in either REPS 1, REPS 2 or REPS 3. The following table details county-by-county the number of former participants in REPS 3 who applied for REPS 4. County Carlow 132 Cavan 383 Clare 462 Cork 1,165 Donegal 276 Dublin 23 Galway 692 Kerry 478 Kildare 146 Kilkenny 182 Laois 347 Leitrim 543 Limerick 457...
- Written Answers — Departmental Research: Departmental Research (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The Farm Structure Survey (Central Statistics Office 2007) showed that 51 percent of all farmers were aged 55 or more, while 26 percent were aged 45 or less. Specialist tillage farmers and dairy farmers tended to have a younger age profile with 46 and 39 percent respectively over the age of 55. As part of the 2020 Strategy we are currently developing, my Department has commissioned the Rural...
- Written Answers — Crop Losses: Crop Losses (25 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: A total of 256 applications under the Aid Scheme for Fodder Damaged by Floods were confirmed as eligible for aid following inspection. These payments were valued at â¬528,718 in total; the county breakdown is as follows: County No Cases Monetary Amount Clare 16 â¬30,969.25 Cork 3 â¬12,985.00 Galway 107 â¬243,978.08 Kerry 1 â¬1,750.00 Kilkenny 1 â¬2,100.00 Leitrim 11...
- World Trade Negotiations (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: I conveyed our Government's serious reservations about the decision to re-engage in negotiations with Mercosur directly to Commissioner Ciolos when I spoke to him on Monday, 17 May. In my discussion with him, I expressed our deep concerns over the decision to relaunch the negotiations and the threat which these negotiations could pose for Irish and European agriculture, at a time of great...
- World Trade Negotiations (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: As Deputy Creed quite rightly says, we are all very concerned about this proposal. It is no secret, and it has been in the public domain, that President Barroso, head of the European Commission, has been the driving force behind this particular initiative to re-open these talks. It is no secret either that there were robust discussions at the college meeting of the Commissioners in early...
- World Trade Negotiations (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: I would not underestimate the commitment or the capacity of the new Commissioner, who is totally committed to the agriculture sector and to maximising the best possible budget we all want post-2013 towards an adequately resourced CAP. At the Council of Ministers, Ireland, together with France, Austria, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Poland, submitted a joint paper which was discussed at the...
- Common Agricultural Policy (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The continuation of a strong decoupled direct payments system is of fundamental importance, in my view, to stabilising farm incomes at times of market volatility. Decoupled payments remain the best way of underpinning the incomes of small family farms, while allowing them respond to market opportunities. In this context, it is essential to acknowledge the linkage between the income...
- Common Agricultural Policy (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The point made by Deputy Sherlock is that, regardless of the mechanism, we need to have some stability in income. We need to put a floor on farmers' incomes. The best way this has been achieved to date is through the direct payment system. Allied to the stabilisation of income, we also need to achieve stability through anti-volatility measures. As I have said in the House a number of...
- Common Agricultural Policy (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: Deputy Sherlock makes a valid point about the divergence of opinion. We are much in favour of direct payments, but some within our own country will argue that the reference period should be changed. If we did an analysis of agriculture overall, we would see that not much has changed over a period of eight to ten years in terms of the number of people participating and the types of activity...
- Departmental Agencies (26 May 2010)
Brendan Smith: The Irish National Stud Company Limited, INS, is a commercial State body established in 1946 and is a company registered under the Companies Act. It does not receive grant aid from the State. The INS is operating in a competitive international environment and the international bloodstock industry has not been immune from the consequences of the global economic downturn in recent years. The...