Results 12,541-12,560 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: The Deputy can take what he wants, but I will give him the answers, if that is all right.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: I stated administration costs had decreased by almost one third.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: Is it possible for me to answer the questions asked? The Deputy is trying to rise me, but it is not going to work.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: Fair play to the Deputy and the Government of which he was part.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: I have no problem giving credit where it is due. I have given credit where it is due in the context of correct decisions made by the previous Administration. There was a requirement to reduce the cost of administration across government. That requirement was forced on both the previous Administration and the current one. I would like to believe the reductions relating to the Department...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: Yes, in total. It is a relatively small figure. The average overclaim in that category is only about 1% and it is a repayment. For some farmers, we took that retrospective payment last year to try to ensure that they would not have a problem. Anybody who thinks that to be popular we can simply tell the Commission we are not paying any retrospective payments, I can advise them that what...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: -----whereby we will have a significant disallowance applied to us which we will have to factor into our budgets. That is crazy when we have the technical capacity to be able to do this much more accurately. We will work with individual farmers to try to limit any financial repayments that they have to make and we can make those repayments, if necessary, over a number of years to try to...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: There is information given to farmers.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: There is.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: It does because we cannot apply a fine if we do not give them information.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: We cannot ask them to repay money that they have overclaimed if we do not give them that information.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: The maps are an EU standard.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: The Deputy should know as a former Minister that when there is an EU standard that is required in terms of mapping one has to-----
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: The figures in terms of the number were the same size that were sent out to farmers when the Deputy was a Minister; he had no issue with this then.
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: First, it is the farmers who are responsible for signing off on their maps - if they are changed or not changed - each year and that is the basis for payments to be made on qualifying land. If a farmer is claiming on land that is not eligible for payments-----
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: No. The Department does not approve; it approves a payment on the basis of an application. It is the legal responsibility of farmers to ensure they are making their applications on the basis of eligible land. We have a more accurate set of photographs now in terms assessing land and we are required, as is every other member state of the European Union, to make an estimate as to whether...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: No, it is not. The farmer determines what is eligible. He or she has a responsibility to do that and the Department then checks the eligibility by inspection. If there has been a physical inspection on a farm and the claim has been approved on the basis of the inspection by the Department there will not be any retrospective claims on the land. If there is a dispute as to eligibility there...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: I wish to finish my response to Deputy Ferris. This is a very difficult issue. I accept many farmers feel very angry and hard-done by in terms of the issue but in the position I am in I only have two alternatives. Either we deal with this as a country through my Department and an appeals process working with farmers on a case-by-case basis to try to get an accurate assessment of what is...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: Farmers have responsibility each year to put a red line around areas on their holdings that are not agricultural land. If a road is put in across a field then the appropriate change must be made. If a yard or shed is extended or if it was decided to take land out of agricultural use the farmer has an obligation to show that. If there is an extension of scrub which makes the land not...
- Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (21 Jan 2014) Simon Coveney: One can grow crops on an area of ecological focus.