Results 14,041-14,060 of 18,593 for speaker:Michael Creed

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Hen Harriers Threat Response Plan (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The overall aim of the European Habitats Directive is to maintain or restore the favourable conservation status of habitats and species which are threatened throughout Europe and deemed highly sensitive to change. These habitats and species are listed in the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive. Special Areas of Conservation, or SACs, and Special Protection Areas, or SPAs – also...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Brexit Supports (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The Brexit Loan Scheme provides affordable working capital to eligible businesses with up to 499 employees that are or will be impacted by Brexit and meet the scheme criteria. The €23 million exchequer funding (€9 million from my Department and €14 million from the Department of Business Enterprise and Innovation) has been leveraged to provide a fund of up to €300...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Antimicrobial Resistance (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: Antimicrobial Resistance or AMR is a major strategic global public health risk. Tackling AMR, specifically antibiotic resistance, across three sectors, human health, animal health and the environmental sector (i.e. a ‘One Health Approach’) is critically important to achieving sustainable development. This department has always recognised the need for a joined up approach. ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Exports (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My officials continue to work towards opening and enhancing access to as many markets as possible. This is a key part of our response to the challenges and uncertainty posed by Brexit, and in line with the market development theme of the Food Wise 2025 strategy. The opening of the Chinese market for Irish beef earlier this year was the culmination of significant work, over a number of years,...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: As the Deputy will be aware, in accordance with competition law, neither I nor my Department have any role in determining market prices for any commodity, nor can I intervene in this process. I am conscious that this has been a difficult year for the sector in terms of weather and the range of challenges associated with it. We have to acknowledge that input costs at farm level will be...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Invasive Plant Species (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My colleague, Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is responsible for the enforcement of Irish legislation which deals with Invasive species. The Wildlife Act and The European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 477/2011), both prohibit the spreading of invasive species. The European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats)...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Reform (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The new regulations for the CAP 2021-27 were launched on Friday 1 June 2018 by Commissioner Hogan. The proposals, as drafted, involve significant changes, including in relation to governance, the distribution of direct payments among farmers and the increasing environmental conditionality attaching to such payments. Discussions on the CAP proposals commenced during the Bulgarian...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department has a number of schemes available to farmers to facilitate their transition towards a low carbon economy. These include initiatives that address efficiency improvement and mitigation, sequestration of carbon and also the provision of biomass towards energy generation. The Origin Green Farm Sustainability and Quality Assurance schemes have at their core an independent...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry Irregularities (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: To date in 2018 there were fines applied to a total of 19 carcases that were non compliant with the EU reference carcase trimming specification. Under legislation (SI 363/2010), non-compliance with the carcase trim specification attracts a maximum on the spot fine of €200 per carcase. Regarding the maximum level that can be imposed, any person who commits an offence under the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: Under the current Rural Development Regulation (and subsequent amendments under the Omnibus Regulation) Member States are required to change the approach to the designation of land under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme. To date my Department had been identifying eligible areas using a range of socio economic indicators such as family farm income, population density, percentage of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The Agricultural Sustainability Support & Advisory Programme (ASSAP) is an innovative Government/industry initiative running from 2018 to 2021 and involves a well structured collaborative initiative involving all stakeholders, including the wider community, to facilitate improvements in water quality. The ASSAP involves a resource of 30 Agricultural Sustainability Advisors, 20 of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The new regulations for the CAP 2021-27 were launched on Friday 1 June 2018 by Commissioner Hogan. The proposals, as drafted, involve significant changes, including in relation to governance, the distribution of direct payments among farmers and the increasing environmental conditionality attaching to such payments. Ireland will work constructively on the CAP proposals with the European...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department has consistently provided significant support for the suckler sector and will continue to do so, in preparation for the next iteration of the CAP. Earlier this year I was pleased to secure an allocation of €20 million in the 2019 Budget for a new pilot scheme for suckler farmers, specifically aimed at further improving the carbon efficiency of beef production. The...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department has provided €20 million in budget 2019 for a new pilot scheme for suckler farmers, specifically aimed at further improving the carbon efficiency of beef production. The Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) will target the weaning efficiency of suckler cows and calves - measuring the liveweight of the calf at weaning as a percentage of the cow's liveweight....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Commonage Framework Plans (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The commencement of the 2018 advance payments in respect of the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) was announced on 14 November 2018. The first payrun saw over €116m paid to over 33,000 participants under the scheme. In the two payruns since we have p[aid an additional 6,500 participants. These payments commenced two weeks earlier than last year and saw an additional...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Identification Schemes (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: My Department is at an advanced stage of development to provide a calf birth registration application that will be accessible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets for farmers who are already registered for Agfood.ie services. In the initial phase farmers will be able to register calf birth details directly with the Department’s Animal Identification and Movement (AIM)...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: Under the current Rural Development Regulation (and subsequent amendments under the Omnibus Regulation) Member States are required to change the approach to the designation of land under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme. To date my Department had been identifying eligible areas using a range of socio economic indicators such as family farm income, population density, percentage of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Industry (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The quality payment system for beef was introduced a number of years ago following intensive negotiations between Meat Industry Ireland and the farmers representatives. The payment system makes use of Carcase Grade sub-classes to determine the price paid, with the aim of rewarding farmers for producing the better quality and higher value carcases. The question of the price paid for...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Milk Supply Regulation (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: As the Deputy is aware, in recent years the EU has accumulated large amounts of public intervention stocks of skimmed milk powder (SMP), which are overhanging the dairy market and providing negative effects on wider dairy markets and market sentiment. In the 2015-2017 period a total of 405,478 tonnes of SMP were bought in to public intervention. The sale of intervention SMP stocks is held...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Grants (6 Dec 2018)

Michael Creed: The Afforestation Grant and Premium Scheme is a voluntary State-funded programme which supports and attracts a wide range of recipients; farmers, non-farmers, partnerships and companies annually. The vast majority however of forest owners are farmers and there is no distinction in terms of payment rates between farmers and non-farmers. The profile of non-farmers also includes retired...