Results 6,401-6,420 of 7,793 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, but we call it a town if there is a shop and a pub or whatever.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is sewage generally the big problem? You can see the areas affected. You would nearly pick out the areas where there is no sewage treatment plant.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Could the committee get those assessments?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: All of the data are available to the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have one final question. If we are looking at 179 high-priority rivers rather than at 800 rivers, which is a third of the 2,400, how can we say anything with certainty? It is like looking at a herd of cattle and saying 16 of them are bad. How can the EPA say these things when it does not analyse all of the different places and when some are analysed only every three years? I know the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The witnesses spoke about peat. Regarding the Little Brosna and Shannon rivers, did the EPA bring cases against Bord na Móna?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The witnesses spoke about peat running down rivers, etc. Did the EPA bring any cases against Bord na Móna?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It was well known in the cases of the Little Brosna and Shannon rivers. If peat is dangerous in this way, would the EPA recommend that all the Bord na Móna peat be cleaned out of the Shannon and the Little Brosna rivers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: No, I am not talking about that. Dr. Cotter was speaking about THMs going down and organic matter going down in water. The River Shannon has a large amount of it from Bord na Móna, as everyone will acknowledge. Did the EPA bring a case against it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The case where it was stopped was different.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Would the EPA recommend that the likes of the Little Brosna river, where peat was milled, be cleaned out?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: For the information of the witnesses I am involved in a group water scheme. Generally, the location of a good spring well is fairly close to a bog or in soft ground. That is just for the information of the witnesses with regard to rural Ireland. It is actually the geological survey that will state where the water is coming from. It could be from a hill back the way. It does not always...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Water Quality Monitoring Report: Discussion (19 Jul 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: If new mechanisms are put in, such as the schemes Irish Water has initiated, there will always be better quality water. There is no doubt about that. The more money that is put into Irish Water and group water schemes throughout the country, the better. That is true of anywhere you go.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Minister and Mr. Massey and Mr. Callanan for coming before the committee. A few things need to be put on record. There has been a lot of commentary over the past week. Being honest, if the Minister had gone out to Europe and on the beer with Commissioner Sinkeviius for a week, it was not going to change the decision; that is being straight up. The simple reason is that we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The Minister might just give me something at the end of the meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On Friday week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The big problem here is the small family farm that is getting hammered. We have to try to protect the small family farm. How are the officials looking at classing calves? I think a year old, or between a year and two years is at 55 kg N/ha.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: That is a woefully high figure. If a calf is 24 kg N/ha, it is a woefully high figure for what we call the yearling or the year-and-a-half-old. Is that going to be looked at in the line of nitrates? There is an awful need to look at it. It is very high. A suckler cow is 65 kg N/ha, is that not correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael Fitzmaurice: A 13-month-old or 14-month-old heifer weanling is 55 kg N/ha. That is what they go down as. I ask the officials to look at that. There is an opportunity and the guys who came out to Brussels with us, namely, the Cathaoirleach and Senators Paul Daly and Lombard, think there is an opportunity under animal welfare to make a case to be able to work with the Commission on that, though I might...