Results 12,121-12,140 of 23,995 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Those 6,000 farmers chose not to renew their participation in the scheme for this year.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Obviously, the opportunity was there for them to take part. I worked to ensure the way in which GLAS was extended was as practical and free of hassle as possible to allow farmers to continue to be able to participate and to undertake actions as part of the scheme instead of it being an additional burden on them. Having said that, however, about 6,000 farmers-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: -----decided to not continue participating in GLAS for an extra year. Turning to the knowledge transfer scheme, the Deputy is right. It is tapering off coming out of the outgoing CAP. Programmes that were running had come to the end of their timeframe. In the previous year, there was €5 million in the area of knowledge transfer. Closing out those schemes this year will see that...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy. My objective as Minister is to support farmers and farming incomes in every way I can. I am constrained in how I can do that in a transition period between one CAP programme and another. I maximise every opportunity available to me to try to ensure that every opportunity is provided to farmers to continue to have their income maintained, hence the continuation of the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy. First, I refer him to my earlier comments on forestry. I totally agree with him on the fact there is a massive challenge here and much of it lies at the Department's door with regard to the delay in licensing. There were reasons and backgrounds for that in terms of the change in legislation and the court decision which very much changed the level of input, particularly...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I do not have those specific figures but I will get back to the Deputy on how much is going to grants and afforestation. The significant majority of the funding goes to recurrent annual premiums, as opposed to the one-off afforestation grant that is a smaller part of the overall annual budget. In the past couple of years we have seen a carry-over from the forestry budget in the form of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Covid-19 Pandemic (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: For public health reasons, the Government has advised that people should stay at home except in a limited number of situations, including if they are travelling to and from work where the work is considered to be an essential service. Those essential service providers are listed here: gov.ie- View the list of essential services at Level 5 (www.gov.ie) and Regulations are in place to support...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pesticide Use (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Efforts to address the issue of pesticide detections in drinking water are being coordinated by the National Pesticides and Drinking Water Action Group (NPDWAG), which is chaired by my Department. NPDWAG membership encompasses a wide range of key stakeholders, including other Government departments and agencies, local authorities, industry representative bodies, farming organisations, water...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Communications (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I fully acknowledge the important contribution bees make to agriculture and biodiversity as both pollinators and honey producers. In this regard, my Department provides a range of supports and initiatives to encourage and assist beekeepers and the national beekeeping associations. These supports include funding to carry out applied research through the National Apiculture Programme, grants to...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Veterinary Medicines (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I want to emphasise at the outset that all stakeholders, including Responsible Persons who are employed by Licensed Merchants, who are currently permitted to sell veterinary medicines under national legislation, such as cattle dosing medicines, will continue to be able to sell and dispense such medicines following the new veterinary medicines Regulation coming into effect in January 2022....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Communications (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I have previously reviewed Professor Hennessey’s comprehensive report on the economic importance of the Poultry Industry in Ireland and I met with the Poultry Industry to discuss this report in more detail last December. Following this meeting, I asked my officials to evaluate the four recommendations contained in this report with a priority placed on examining the key...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: GLAS Issues (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The person named was selected for an on farm inspection in 2020 and was notified of the inspection findings by letter dated 19th February 2021. This letter outlined the option of requesting a review of the outcome. The person named subsequently submitted a request for a review of the inspection findings which was received on 23rd March 2021. This request is currently being processed and the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Felling Licences (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1254 and 1264 together. The Forestry Dashboard for week ending 19 March, noted that a total of 15 forestry licences issued – one tree felling licence, four afforestation and 10 for forest road works. In addition to this, seven licences that had been remitted to my Department following appeal to the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) were reissued....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Management (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: Ireland experienced two severe and significant late spring frost events in early May 2019 and again in mid-May 2020. These events affected forest holdings with recently planted trees planted under DAFM’s Afforestation Schemes. Late spring frost can particularly affect commercial forest holdings, both through direct mortality of affected trees, and by influencing reductions in growth...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department has numerous staff members in a range of disciplines working on various aspects of Portal Inspections. The following table shows the number of staff that were assigned to Portal Locations in 2020 and 2021. YEAR 2020 2021 (YTD) Number of DAFM Staff in Portal Locations 234 243 Additional staff may be involved in...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Legal Cases (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department considers the use of social considerations (including environmental considerations) in the procurement process where appropriate. No litigation or the threat of litigation arising from the inclusion of social clauses in public procurement contracts in each of the years 2017 to 2020 have been received.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Usage (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The Nitrates Derogation allows farmers to exceed the limit of 170 kg of livestock manure nitrogen per hectare set down in the Nitrates Regulations, up to a maximum of 250 kg per hectare, subject to adherence to stricter rules. The Derogation is an important facility for more intensive farmers. The 2021 application system is currently open. The attached table details the breakdown per county...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Usage (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The attached file details the total amount of livestock manure produced in 2019 by county. The annual nutrient excretion rates for livestock are detailed in the Nitrates regulations (European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Waters) (Amendment) No. 3) Regulations 2020. Calculations on the daily amount per animal on a holding are based on stock details on the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Usage (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: The attached table details the information requested, the amount of livestock manure produced in excess of the derogation threshold which is 250 kgs of Nitrogen per hectare, the table is detailed by county as requested.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Felling Licences (31 Mar 2021)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1261 and 1262 together. My Department receives applications and issues decisions for forestry licences daily. Last year, 1,719 tree felling licences were issued for just over five million cubic metres of timber. To date this year, my Department has already issued 516 tree felling licences for 1.6 million cubic metres, which is 16% up on the number issued at...