Results 7,241-7,260 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: That is right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: If members so wish we could arrange a meeting to discuss the disadvantaged areas scheme. I would be happy to take the committee through the details. We could then consider the choices in terms of how we can make savings. It is possible that we may not have to make savings but at least the choices will be on the table so that people understand how we reached our decisions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: I can also provide the figures on staff numbers which were sought earlier.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: The food aid development programmes cost €9 million or €10 million. In case any member thinks this is an easy win, if we do not pay that, the funding stream is transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This is part of our Government commitment to development aid. It is not money that could be transferred to, for example, the suckler cow welfare scheme.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: I am happy to have a conversation about that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: I am encouraged by the debate. If members are genuinely serious about engaging in helping me to put a better budget together, I will actively participate in that discussion. It would be great if mine was the first Department to do that successfully though the committee system. However, if members start abusing this, I will pull the shutters down because I have to protect my Department and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Simon Coveney: I would like to make one final suggestion. It may be useful to have a private meeting in this room to discuss some of these issues. If members are being watched by journalists who are looking for headlines and so on, it makes it more difficult in some ways for me to be open and it also makes it more difficult for Opposition members to talk about the issues on which we have to make...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Applications (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: My Department issued letters to 10,165 applicants under the 2011 disadvantaged areas scheme whose stocking density in 2011 was less than 0.3 livestock units per hectare, lu/ha. These letters informed farmers of their right to seek a derogation from the requirement of the 2012 disadvantaged areas scheme if they considered that they did not achieve a stocking density of 0.3 lu/ha or more in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Applications (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: I would not. In terms of the number of farmers seeking derogation and in the context of the number who applied, there is certainly a high number in mountain-type grazing areas. However, if one looks at the number of applications, 3,497 were accepted in mountain-type grazing areas and only 639 were rejected, so we are taking on board the realities that in mountain-type grazing situations,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Applications (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: It is not a question of generosity, it is a question of-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Applications (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: There is a tolerance and that has been made clear to farmers. If one is required to have a low stocking rate, because of an environmental plan which one is required to adopt, whether a common framework plan, an AEOS plan, a REPS plan or otherwise, that takes precedence over the new criteria we set out last year for qualification. There is no lower limit on that. Whatever the commonage...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: The modelling carried out by my Department has shown that a flat rate system, whereby a flat rate would be applied throughout the country without breaking the country up into different regions, would result in 74,000 farmers gaining under the single farm payment while 56,000 farmers would lose. That is if we were to adopt the Commission's proposal and to designate Ireland as one big region...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: I agree with a number of the Deputy's comments. On the distribution, the approach I have been advocating proposes the redistribution of approximately €80 million over the next round of CAP from people who have done well out of the pillar 1 distribution and farmers who have not done so well. The higher the payment, the more one loses. At the high end we are losing more than 20%....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: I am very concerned about the overall allocation for pillar 2 payments. We have a clear outline of what the Commission is proposing in respect of redistribution of pillar 1 payments between countries. Ireland was a significant contributor to designing the model, which is called approximation. With regard to pillar 2, it is very unclear and people are talking about using objective criteria...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes Expenditure (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: The budget allocations for 2013 will be considered in the context of the gross expenditure ceilings allocated to all Departments for the period 2012-14 under the Government’s medium-term expenditure framework. The Government’s decision on expenditure ceilings was taken in order to strike a balance between needs and priorities in all Departments on a multi-annual basis, to meet...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes Expenditure (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: Within budgetary constraints, we have tried to respond as proactively as we can to what has been a disastrous summer. We did that with regard to slurry spreading dates. We reduced the closed period for most of the country by six weeks. We pushed back the deadline by a month and pulled the end date back by two weeks also. We have also relaxed the green cover requirements for people who...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agriculture Schemes Expenditure (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: I understand those points. I was in Kerry a couple of days ago to speak to more than 300 farmers in Listowel to outline our approach to both pillars of the CAP. We had a constructive meeting. I know Kerry and parts of west Cork were hit hardest by rainfall over the summer. Farm schemes are more important in years like this when they help to get farmers through difficulties caused by...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: I am glad this question was asked because there has not been enough discussion of pillar 2 and related decisions. The likelihood is that there will be some element of sequencing in the CAP reform negotiations and not all decisions will be taken at the same time, although political agreement on a deal will most likely cover all of the key elements both for pillar 1 and for pillar 2. As the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: On the last question, I can assure the Deputy that it is my full intention that we are not leaving any money behind in Brussels, as farmers would say. Ireland has been one of the better countries in the EU at ensuring that has been and is the case, under previous governments and this one. There is one matter on which I cannot give the Deputy an assurance because it is a decision for Heads...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (6 Nov 2012)

Simon Coveney: It is the Taoiseach, rather than the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who leads those negotiations.