Results 13,641-13,660 of 34,885 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: How often do those meetings happen?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: Where? How many from the Department attend?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: The Oireachtas has made it standard practice since last summer that the letter of invitation to witnesses include the sentence that they have somebody who can make a call to their Department or offices because a meeting can go on for a couple of hours

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: That allows us to get information if it is not immediately to hand. We are often told that information will be sent to us. Mr. O'Driscoll is meant to have someone available here who could make a telephone call to have that question answered for us.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: For the benefit of people watching, can the Deputy explain what the CEDRA report is? He and I might know but some people will not.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: He opened up that topic.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: How much of that would be in Portlaoise?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will come back to that in a moment. I wish to ask a few questions. I think Deputy Aylward may also have some final questions.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will come back to that in a moment. I want to make one or two other points. I notice in the Department's report, under land mobility measures such as the early retirement and installation aid payment schemes, that the Department paid out €10 million in 2014 on the early retirement scheme. This decreased to €7 million in 2015. Obviously, some of the people availing of the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: Does Mr. O'Driscoll have that type of information?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: We do have it for the non-contributory pension. If a person has assets, he will not get it. However, if he has contributions, he need not divest. We had that system before.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: It would be interesting from a planning point of view. The numbers of farmers who are over 55 years does not tell us anything about the quantum of farming or how many are farming land. A far more relevant measure is the amount of farm land being farmed in the country that is held by people in the various age categories, rather than the number of farmers. Does Mr. O'Driscoll understand my point?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: Will Mr. O'Driscoll see what he can send us?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: Let us come back to the issue of Bord na gCon. Will Mr. Gleeson give us an update?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: That is fair enough. In meetings between departmental officials and Bord na gCon would this have been flagged to the Department? Does Mr. Gleeson understand my question? Was the Department aware that this was pending, even if the board of the track in Harold's Cross was not aware that it was pending?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: Of course. The matter was contentious.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Gleeson can send us a note on that. I wish to make one last point before I call Deputy Burke. Obviously, there is an issue with the 2015 audited accounts and they are nearly here. Far more important is the question of the 2016 management accounts. Getting the 2015 accounts alone will not be much good. The Estimates for this year are going through the Dáil at the moment....

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: I understand what the Deputy is saying. The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine is the policy committee on this area. That committee might take the view that it is more under its remit, since it is a matter of current policy, rather than a matter for the Committee of Public Accounts. At issue is a decision for the future. Perhaps we should convey our views to the Joint...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: That is fine. The point is well made. I will call Deputy Cullinane next.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Seán Fleming: It related to production in Ireland and demand worldwide.