Results 13,741-13,760 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes Appeals (30 Sep 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: 244. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a decision will be made on an appeal lodged with the agriculture appeals office by a person (details supplied) in County Wicklow; the reason for the delay in the consideration of this appeal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36660/14]

Registration of Lobbying Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (1 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I welcome the introduction of the Bill, which is timely. It has been needed for a long time. I always have reservations about having more regulation because sometimes we catch the wrong people in the net and a great deal of bureaucracy is created for those who are acting properly to try to catch those who abuse the system. However, I have no doubt that it is important to regulate lobbying....

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Unfortunately, they will not.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: No. The Minister is wrong.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Fair play to the Deputy. He is bang on; he hit it in one.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Minister just does not understand. There are none so blind as those who do not want to see.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Deputy was well represented by his colleague, Ms Eileen Mannion.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I welcome this timely debate. I also welcome the contribution made by Deputy Kyne and hope the Minister listened carefully to what he said. There is a disaster facing people who live in hill areas, with a massive loss of income facing them. Once again, the Minister has shown total disregard and a total lack of understanding and unwillingness to talk to people who understand what hill...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department's figures indicate that 50% of the farmers who farm commonage lands do not own sheep and that this means that 50% of farmers are not grazing the hills. This is a subject Deputy Kyne would know about and that I know about as a Deputy representing Galway West. The Minister is now telling us that the farmers who are claiming the hill, but who have cattle on the lowland will not...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In an area like Connemara, this represents approximately 50% of farmers and will take a possible €3 million of ANC, DAS and single farm payments out of Connemara. It will remove €15 million from farmers nationally and will have a huge effect on the economy. Deputy Kyne and I are both arguing that the farmers should be allowed to sort this out among themselves and that as long...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I was at the meeting in Maam Cross and the slides shown to us at that meeting indicated that in that situation a farmer's obligation would be to put 3.3 sheep, say four sheep, on the commonage. If all the farmers must put up four sheep, they will have to chase the four sheep around the 1,000 acres of mountain in order to dip them, shear them etc. In the meantime, those who had significant...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There is a planning maximum and the Minister knows that. His officials explained that quite clearly at the meeting in Maam Cross. The planned run-up sets the maximums. Furthermore, I am astounded by the number of times the Minister mentioned "undergrazing". He mentioned the causes of undergrazing, but he did not mention the greatest cause of undergrazing, which was not a lack of interest...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We are all willing to face up to the issue of undergrazing and land abandonment mentioned by the Minister, as long as farmers may, between them, put enough stock on the hills. The Minister must review this and I believe he can find the wriggle room to do this within the legislation. He must provide that as long as the hills are fully grazed by all of the farmers together, this should be...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have sympathy for the Minister's colleague, Deputy Kyne. When the full import of what the Minister has done and what he, as President in Europe, agreed to for hill farmers is fully understood - by December 2015 - he will then understand that he did not understand the reality of what he was doing. The issue is as serious as that. I was amused by the Minister saying that farmers "obtain"...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I presume I will be given extra time to make up for the interruptions.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I explained this issue at the meeting in Maam Cross because the officials did not seem to understand it. The average lambing rate on a hill is approximately 70% and generally half of the lambs born are male and half of them are female. This gives us 35 lambs per 100. Farmers lose 10% of their lambs per annum through natural mortality on hills when we take good years versus bad years, which...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In regard to GLAS, the collective agreement as proposed will not work, and I believe it would be open to legal challenge. It was fascinating to hear officials from the Department say at the meeting the other day in Mount Cross that they are now belatedly seeking legal advice on that agreement. They also said that only 50% agreement is needed to lock-split a commonage. Had they checked with...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: For example, reference was made by the departmental officials to most farmers having only eight hectares, which means they would be paid less than €1,000 under GLAS. The impression that there is €5,000 available does not stack up.

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: How many hill sheep or cattle farmers are on the commonage implementation body? Following the issuance of a diktat from the Department in respect of stocking levels, without prior consultation with farmers, will farmers, who probably know better than most professional planners who, in the main, grew up on low land farms, be required to pay for the planner to rebut the Department's proposals...

Report on Review of Commonage Land and Framework Management Plan: Motion (3 Oct 2014)

Éamon Ó Cuív: They do not for flatlands.