Results 6,321-6,340 of 7,793 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: How co-ordinated is the industry? Is there any long-term-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am speaking about forward buying and trying to get a deal done for a two or three-year period so that people will know they are okay. Do contracts such as this exist or is it a race to the bottom with the supermarkets kicking the daylights out of the producers telling them that someone in Spain-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: There are no signed contracts from any of the major retailers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does the IFA have a contract or not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I ask Ms Brennan to explain the something to me, as it often baffles me. When we were youngsters growing vegetables in gardens, including lettuce, onions or whatever, we pulled them and brought them in. After a day or two they were going yellowish. How come with a lot of imported stuff, lettuce could be in the fridge for nearly a month and it is still looking like it did the first day it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: This is in light of what the witnesses have said about the mushroom industry and the research they have done indicating that there is nothing suitable. Unfortunately, we have invited three Ministers in. There is a bit of cat and mouse going on about what is happening. There was been a court case in the past week where the EPA brought growers to court about a hydrologically linked area....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I think the EPA should be brought in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Consolidation in Horticultural Grower Numbers: Discussion (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Thank you.

Environmental Protection Agency Water Quality Report 2022: Statements (28 Jun 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this report. I agree with Deputy Murnane O’Connor about septic tanks. If one did not register, one had to pay a fiver to do so at a later date. If late registration costs €20 now, that is fine. However, we should look at water quality. I ask the Minister of State to do so because it is stupid for a county council to do the 5% they are...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (4 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Minister of State for coming in. It is a pity the Minister for Health is not present. I think an inquiry needs to be held into this. The child is 17 years of age. He had an accident. NoWDOC is in chaos in Carrick-on-Shannon. This child went to Sligo hospital but it does not have the facilities to deal with his situation. We are supposed to have so-called centres of...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (4 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: A total of €22 billion is being spent on health in this country. It is ironic that the Minister of State says that a sixth of the population is in that area, which covers one third of the country. It is a big area and we should try to bring the services as close as we can. These people were prepared to travel. There is no question of that.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Services (4 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: These people were prepared to travel 115 km each way. Yet, we did not have a service in the whole of the west of Ireland. We did not have it in Letterkenny, Sligo, Castlebar, Roscommon or Galway, which was to be the centre of excellence. It is a damning indictment of our country - and I come from the agricultural sector - that if that night I had an animal that lost part of its foot or was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I was looking at a map on which the whole of the country was red, meaning it needs additional measures. I was looking at some of the areas and there would be more cows in a corner of some counties than there would be in the whole of the county. What is the reasoning behind the EPA report on that? Second, if I am a farmer and I do not draw grants, it does not affect me, does it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will ask a few questions and get it on record. Regarding the EPA, we saw a case last week where evidence was required from the EPA and it was not able to produce it. Let us say farming organisations had a body or scientist that wanted to look at all the information. Has all of this been checked? I am involved in a group water scheme where you keep samples of the water. Is there a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: My first question is probably for Mr. Flynn. Do we know for sure whether the inorganic nitrogen output of soils is directly correlated with the end concentration in rivers? Turning to Mr. Callanan, there are farmers on derogation who have 500 to 700 cows. Was there any attempt to try to protect farmers with smaller herds, for example, 100 cows? We hear of farmers who have to go from 80...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Do we know?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is Mr. Flynn telling me some are monitoring every ten minutes while the EPA might be only sampling a thing once a year, once every six months or once every three years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: To me, that is no system.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I spoke about group water schemes supplying water 20 years ago and supplying it now. With regard to testing, is it at a higher standard now? I know that when water is supplied to people, it is a completely different ball game. It is chalk and cheese compared with 20, ten or even five years ago. The standard keeps going up.