Results 8,381-8,400 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund: Motion (13 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Let us be clear. We have done the numbers on this. The revenue from a 1% tax on remote and online betting would be €11 million. If one adds the two figures together, the total is about €40 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund: Motion (13 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: That has come down from a figure of well over €70 million at one point. It is true that in recent years the shift online has been a significant factor but when the initial decisions were made to cut from 20% to 10% to 5%, remote and online betting was not such an issue. I suspect we are on the same page in regard to where we would like to go, first in terms of getting the system...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Business of Joint Committee (13 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Before the Vice Chairman finishes, may I, too, wish all the members a happy Christmas. I have found this committee to be really helpful in trying to solve some difficult problems in the build-up to the budget. This is probably the only committee to have that type of engagement in terms of trying to find solutions to very difficult problems. Not everybody is happy with those solutions but I...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: International Agreements (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: In January 2012, the EU Commission introduced a draft negotiating mandate for a new protocol for the EU Morocco Fisheries Agreement. The mandate sought to conclude a protocol which would oblige Morocco to comply with international law and to report regularly on its use of the funds for the population concerned, including the people of the Western Sahara. A Council decision of 14 February...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pension Provisions (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: The person to whom the Deputy refers retired under the Cost Neutral Early Retirement scheme on the 29 February 2012 and received a lump sum in early March 2012. His pension is payable fortnightly by the Paymaster General's Office with effect from 1 March 2012 and it is not possible to pay his pension in any other manner.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Fund (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Exchequer support is provided annually to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and Bord na gCon (BNG) as commercial State Bodies established under legislation in 2001 and in 1958 to develop the bloodstock and greyhound industries, respectively. The Irish bloodstock industry and greyhound industries are estimated to support approximately 28,000 jobs and provide €1.4bn in economic output. Both...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Herd Testing Numbers (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: As it has not been possible to compile the information in the available timescale, my Department will forward it directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Single Payment Scheme Application Numbers (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 501 and 502 together. I presume the Deputy’s questions relate to the Department’s analysis of post-2013 CAP reform proposals. The various CAP reform proposals which have emerged have been modelled based on the 2010 Single Payment Scheme (SPS) database of actual payments to farmers in that year, rather than entitlements. This analysis excludes...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff Retirements (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: None of the Veterinary Inspectors who availed of early retirement from my Department this year have been re-engaged by my Department.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Census of Agriculture (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: The Central Statistics Office’s Census of Agriculture 2010, released earlier this month, gives the most up-to-date picture in this regard as it classifies farmholders by whether farming is their Sole Occupation, a Major Occupation or Subsidiary Occupation. The table below shows this data in comparison to the previous (2000) Census of Agriculture and the intervening CSO National Farm...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare Issues (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 505 and 506 together. Council Directive 2008/120/EC lays down minimum standards for the protection of pigs and enters into force on the 1 January 2013. My Department’s Veterinary Inspectors have been monitoring the situation on farms over recent months and the most recent survey carried out indicates 66% compliance level in terms of sow units. A...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes Payments (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Although constrained by tight budgetary disciplines which originally demanded a reduction of €114 million for next year, I was determined in finalising the Vote for my Department in 2013, to minimise the impact of the scale of the reductions so that the most important schemes and programmes were protected to the greatest possible extent. I am pleased to say I have managed to secure...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agrifood Sector (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: The Food Harvest 2020 report set a growth value target of 33% to be achieved by 2020 for the primary sector and within that overall target the dairy and seafood sectors are areas where the most substantial growth is envisaged over the next four years.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Imports (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: It is not possible to provide this information in the required time. The material is being compiled and it will be forwarded it to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Industry (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Sectoral performance over any given time horizon is subject to a multitude of factors. These include supply and demand dynamics, exchange rate fluctuations, producer margins, variations in input costs, the macroeconomic climate generally, trading conditions in individual commodities and market opportunities arising from international agreements. In the case of the dairy sector, production is,...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fish Landings (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Under the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 2006, operational issues concerning sea fisheries control are a matter for the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA). I have asked the SFPA to respond directly to the question.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Safety Standards (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Marine (DAFM) Laboratories carry out a broad and in-depth range of laboratory tests to support DAFM’s requirements in the areas of animal health, plant health and food and feed safety. While DAFM laboratories have the capacity to carry out most of the tests to meet these requirements, for cost efficient reasons, some tests are...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dairy Sector (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: Volatility in dairy prices is caused by imbalances of supply and demand in international markets, which are cyclical in nature. Dairy farmers’ incomes are comprised of the returns they receive for their milk from processors and their EU support payments. As some 85% of Irish dairy production is exported, mostly to other EU countries, the price of milk in Ireland is ultimately...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Exports (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: The National Competitiveness Scorecard, which benchmarks Ireland’s competitiveness against key competitors, has indicated that between April 2008 and April 2012, Ireland’s nominal Harmonised Competitiveness Index (HCI) fell by 7.6%, while the real HCI fell by almost 15.25%. (The nominal HCI is a nominal effective exchange rate for the Irish economy that reflects, on a trade...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Marketing Programme (18 Dec 2012)

Simon Coveney: I have been active in developing relationships in new and expanding markets in order to build the kind of confidence in Irish production and control systems that provide a platform for long-term trading relationships in the future. In April this year I headed a trade mission to China to further develop this important relationship, and to meet my ministerial counterparts in the Agriculture...