Results 7,341-7,360 of 10,882 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Resumed) (16 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: We are talking about areas that are the most beautiful places in the country to drive through. There are huge areas of publicly owned green spaces and other publicly owned land that is suitable. I am not suggesting that we just move in and build a pile of modular homes but we need to have a balance in terms of those areas.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Resumed) (16 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: However, some parts of the country have remained relatively untouched-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Resumed) (16 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: I will finish on this point. There are rural communities and urban working-class areas where there is a high level of frustration with and disengagement from "official Ireland", to use that term. These are places where you cannot get a GP appointment or it is very hard to access any public service and that has been the case long before we had anybody seeking asylum in this country....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: Hear, hear.

Financial Resolution No.3: Value-Added Tax (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. I appeal to the Minister to support our family farmers who are under enormous pressure at the moment. The measures proposed by the Government will increase the cost of agricultural diesel by 1 cent per litre in June, a further 1 cent in September and a further 3 cent in October. Those are costs that farmers cannot bear, particularly...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: I am conscious of the time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: I am nearly lost for words at that suggestion. I thought I was renowned for my brevity in this committee. The level of ambition that has been set out in the afforestation targets that the Irish Timber Council's representatives rightly say are required for us to meet our climate action targets are quite substantial. The Minister caused a bit of a stir in this committee when he was here on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: From the dashboard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: That is the annual figure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: That is the point. The Minister had suggested it is in excess of 1,000 ha. When a number of members pressed him, the Minister stated he was told 1,000 ha were planted in January. The dashboard says there were 66 ha planted in January, which is lower than January of last year. We need to get clarification. I propose we would seek that urgently from the Department because there is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: We are in the middle of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: A total of 40% of those who secure licences for afforestation do not proceed to planting. That is a significant level. There is not another scheme I am aware of where that number of people go to the effort of making an application and, by the time it comes round, decide not to proceed. Is there any sense that will change as a result of the new forestry programme? If it does not, it means...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: My final question will go off-topic, but it concerns an issue this committee considers quite a bit because we get representations from communities and environmental organisations. The fact we can grow trees twice as fast as other European countries has been mentioned twice now, but that is specifically Sitka spruce. Does the ITC see scope for diversification into new forestry in terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion (22 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: Does the ITC see any other route where farmers would move to different types of tree planting and wood production, in a sustainable way, both environmentally and financially?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: The Comptroller and Auditor General mentioned that Moorepark made an oversight. It is hard to accept that there would be oversights of that nature where the accounts are simply not filed. Where was the mistake made? Was it at Moorepark? Is there not an automatic system that would suggest when accounts are expected and do not arrive?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: I do not believe representatives of Teagasc have appeared before the committee, certainly not during this Dáil. It has a very significant budget and a very important remit - arguably an increasingly important remit considering its advisory role on climate action measures. It might be useful to include it on the list of future bodies for hearing.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: I would suggest it would be worth having Teagasc on its own.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: Yes, I think we should do that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Feb 2023)

Matt Carthy: Yes, it is one area to include on our work programme but I am eager that the committee would prioritise work in respect of the immigrant investor programme and would engage with the Department of Justice in the first instance. This will require quite an amount of deliberation. A number of the people and companies that availed of that programme have left a trail of questions that need to be...