Results 7,341-7,360 of 7,796 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Statement of Strategy 2023-2026: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am a TD.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will be brief. I thank the witnesses for coming in. What is owed today on the 2023 ACRES scheme in total?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes. To farmers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, but what is owed from the 2023 scheme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Obviously the Department has a ballpark figure. If 55,000 people were let in, of the budget the Department had, what would be owed? What is paid and what is owed? I am trying to find out what is owed to the people who are still waiting on the money because of the IT problem?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is that €275 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Realistically, when does the Department envisage this happening? Every one of us is getting it from farmers, especially when there are those assessments on flowers and the co-operation project zones. When does the Department reckon that those farmers will be paid? It is my understanding that many of the low-lying farmers, which was the more simpler part of it, would be paid fairly well,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is hard enough on farmers to be waiting. Is there no other way it can be done? Is there a manual way of doing this if it is problematic that the IT system is not picking up issues? Is there something that could be done manually to speed it up?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Looking down the road to four years from now, I ask that when this is perfected, the Department does not go chopping and changing. Maybe it could give more options to farmers in order that if they do not want to be in co-ordination project zones, it would be up to them to decide if they wanted to go into separate schemes. If the criteria type is perfected on the IT system, chopping and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Just give more options. If they do not want to be in co-ordinated projects zones or if they want to go into something else other than growing flowers, let them do that. Mr. Savage made a comment to the effect that a certain area of the country has been environmentally assessed and that it could be used for policy purposes later on. To which policy was Mr. Savage referring?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Statement of Strategy 2023-2026: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I know that. I have one small other question. I brought it up the other day. In 2016, the Department changed the regulations so that an owner's consent was not needed to change a book over. Is that now going to be changed back?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Statement of Strategy 2023-2026: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am not criticising the CAP part. What I am on about is the ACRES side of things.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On TAMS, is there any focus on the derogation, which, I believe, will be coming up for Ireland next year? At present, farmers get a grant if they have a derogation. Will there be any aspects of TAMS available - for instance, if they needed to put down extra tanks - or is it just for soiled water? On the basis of the figures the Department has given us in respect of TAMS, it seemed to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agricultural Schemes: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (3 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Can it be avoided? Does the Department need to get approval? This is what I am trying to get at. Could the Department stay with the same thing and say to the guys in Brussels "This is working, so off with ye"? Would the Department be within its rights to do that? Is giving more money, or taking it in, a Government decision? With the measures that are there, does the Department have the...

Report of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Motion (4 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Excuse me, but I believe I have eight minutes. I commend Deputy Cahill, the Chair of our committee. He has sunk his teeth into this. As Deputy Harkin said, Deputy Carthy is from Monaghan. I am from Roscommon-Galway. Dan Brennan does not live in our area. Deputy Cahill is from Tipperary. When Dan Brennan appeared before our committee, we knew that somebody does not keep something...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte Teoranta (4 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: 397. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when information as discussed by the Joint Committee on Agriculture Food and the Marine held on 25 January 2023 on inventory of the quantity and quality of what Coillte has in stock in its 40-year cycle will be forthcoming as previously requested; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28721/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Going by the reports done by the EPA and if it has to send a report next year, I know the witnesses have said it is an annual report. Regarding the report that has already gone to Europe on nitrates, would it be any better than what was sent before?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The west would have a high percentage of forestry. I see the EPA has done a chart on the pressures and it looks at it nationally. Leitrim is down as being high in phosphorous. Is that down to forestry because a huge percentage of the county is forestry?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Compliance with the Nitrates Directive and Implications for Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is it possible to get that? Does the EPA have that information?