Results 8,161-8,180 of 8,205 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice
- Tillage Sector: Statements (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The agriculture committee has gone a few times.
- Financial Resolutions 2025 - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget. I welcome the increases for pensioners and people with disabilities. They probably need more, to be frank, but I have to at least acknowledge it. I welcome the increase in the carer's supports thresholds. The ideal scenario is that if someone packs up a job to mind another person, regardless of what their partner earns or has, it saves the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I welcome everyone in. I am familiar with Mr. Gildea's operation. I have been there often enough looking at it. I want to compliment Mr. Finan and Dr. Nolan for the work in liaising to try to get these off the ground. There are two different systems we are on about. Mr. Gildea is producing electricity. The first thing I will do is call out for this, and I will not apologise to anyone, is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: In fairness, Mr. Gildea’s is a phenomenal set up. It is interesting to see how the grass growth, which I also saw, is phenomenal. I was hugely impressed with that place out there. Dr. Nolan spoke about how he is getting on to gas but he spoke about how farmers out the country had done it. The big problem for farmers is that if someone is a tillage farmer, they do not need to be in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I am not wrong.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I will put it this way. I am well familiar and have done a lot of research on this. With Uisce Éireann, if you go to its place, bring the sludge back and put it through anaerobic digestion, it will not give it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: For using all-farm product.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: However, if you are using anything outside of that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: It has to be completely farm waste.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I have met the guys in Nephin before. I know they are at the site down in Ballinrobe and they are looking at more sites around the country. Other than being involved, I think they are tied up with Corrib gas and all that. Is it viable, realistically, to say to a farmer Nephin will give the farmer €30 a bale, or whatever, for silage? I cannot see the maths working on that. I know...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Sure we have plenty of time. We are here until 6 o'clock.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Sorry. The final thing is that Mr. Sweeney referred to - and I had an MEP looking at this as well - instances where if you are bringing in slurry, it changes the production because you might have dosed the animal or whatever and that causes more problems. Will the witnesses explain that in a way we can understand?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The witnesses can go at them as they want.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: What sort of a fund will that create?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Industry also needs cheap gas.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I know everyone wants the ideal world. While you have to use a percentage of that gas, you are not going to use 100% because it would be too costly. Does Mr. Phelan understand what I am saying?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Dr. Nolan with to comment?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: It is just about Bia Energy being able to do it with agricultural stuff. Other than that, it is not allowed.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: There is a place in Derry. I have visited a good few places, but there is none yet that is really producing much biodigested dry matter. I know Bia Energy puts out one part of it. There is none in the line of the big anaerobic digesters where there was talk of them being able to heat, go through a system, evaporate the water and put out dry matter. That is not happening because operators...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Anaerobic Digestion: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Could Mr. Sweeney comment on the EU regulation?