Results 6,721-6,740 of 7,793 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is going to have dire consequences for the people who have signed up to SCEP if the figures have gone wrong on their farm.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There will be dire consequences.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is the first point. I want to get my head around this. I follow the kills in factories and over the last four or five years, even with all our genomics in dairy and beef, overall, we have lighter carcasses. Mr. Coughlan will probably be able to give me a breakdown between beef and dairy. If we want to talk about carbon, we are now killing four cattle to probably three going back...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Coughlan said they have gained weight. Why do 24 of the top 50 on the new proposal have one star for carcass weight?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: It is pretty important when you are killing them, on the bullock side.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: What is meant by resistance to TB, if ICBF only uses TB test responses in TB breakdown animal cohorts as the measurement of resistance?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There is not one scientific test to say it is right.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I will put this on the record. I spoke to someone in England who has researched TB. Am I correct that the ICBF looked at the guts of 4 million cattle, dropped it down to 780,000 for the pedigree, then selected 144,000, of which 14,000 were bulls? Will ICBF tell me that under the new TB approach, I will not get TB?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Okay. Am I correct that with 300 herds at 50 a piece, we are almost free from TB? That is the Department's guide. Is that right or wrong?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: That is the figure that is used.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There is no such thing as resistance, according to the people who have researched it, because stress causes TB, they can have a gene-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The bottom line is that different cattle react in different ways. If you put stress onto cattle, some of them will show up with TB. Some of them might never show up with TB.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Going by when I looked at it-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I will tell you one thing. The people who have researched TB all their lives in England and Ireland have given me documents which strongly disagree with the system the ICBF is using.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I have more questions, but my time is up.
- Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Sports Funding (12 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: 378. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when a decision will be made on the applications submitted under the 2023 sports capital and equipment programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55320/23]
- Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Staff (12 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: 573. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 341 of 10 October 2023, if she will confirm the number of staff suffering from long-Covid who have had their employment terminated by her Department in particular (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55189/23]
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank Mr. Coughlan for that. On the new index, why were 24 of the top 50 replacement bulls on the suckler side awarded one star for carcass weight? Is that correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: They will say clearly that TB will never be eliminated completely.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)
Michael Fitzmaurice: They did not sign up to take risks.