Results 1,441-1,460 of 1,995 for speaker:Joe Flaherty

Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023 (Bill 54 of 2023): Report and Final Stages (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I am concluding.

Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023 (Bill 54 of 2023): Report and Final Stages (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: It is important that we get this information. I ask the Minister to make contact with the hospital and try to get the report before 30 November.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I apologise for not being in the room for the witnesses' opening statement because I had to go to the Chamber, but I watched it being broadcast. I might focus on the issue of passports. I am increasingly concerned by what I am hearing from producers. HSI has been awarded the €3.5 million contract from the Department of Education for the new e-passports, which is significant. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Was that before Mr. Duggan's time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Did Mr. Duggan pull the plug on the judicial review?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Obviously, this is a peak time for producers of foals. Based on the information I have been able to glean, approximately 70% of foals sold through the sales houses in the last number of months did not have passports. Of the 140 foals sold in Cavan, it is estimated that 40% of them had passports, which was reasonable given the next figure. In Goresbridge, 565 foals were presented and just...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: The bulk of them would be experiencing delays. A breeder called me this morning. She had a foal and two yearlings which she applied for in May. For the two yearlings she had to get the DNA testing done at her own expense from another stud book. She has the two yearlings done. She has the stud book for the foal, a pure bred Irish draught horse, but is still waiting on that. May is well...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Dr. Egan will appreciate that there is an animal welfare issue here as well. If it goes past six months before issuance, it will be stamped that they cannot enter the food chain. Everybody who produces a foal thinks they will be world beaters and will never have any anticipation of them entering the food chain but clearly there is an animal health and welfare issue with this as well. Is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: HSI is not hitting those targets at present.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: In the run up to Christmas, can Dr. Egan give any assurance to those breeders who brought their foals to Goresbridge and Cavan and who effectively sold them? When will the passports issue for those foals?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I understand, but I am asking more generally for all the foals that HSI has applications for at present. When does Dr. Egan envisage those being cleared?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Will that clear all of this year's foals?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: Would about five and a half thousand foals be a fair estimate?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I will stay with the passport issue. Historically, we had the green book and the blue book and now we have what is colloquially known as the white book. Because of the delays in the passport, many breeders are opting for the white book, which excludes a lot of the breeding history. This is regrettable at a time when we are trying to emphasise the importance of Irish breeding and Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: I want to come back to the composition of the board. We have heard from all the affiliates and we have spoken to many people across the industry. It is fair to say that nobody within the industry is happy with the proposed composition off the board. Notwithstanding what Mr. Duggan said about discussions with the affiliates, is HSI going to persist with its plans for the board or will it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: What I have gleaned here is that the only issues with the old system of the advisory council are gender balance and diversity. Is that the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: They are the two issues Mr. Dowling mentioned.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: We need gender balance and diversity. Mr. Dowling's key point was that they must bring experience in the equine sector to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: There may be an argument that one could bring in experts in accounting and law who may not necessarily have expertise in equine. I do not think we would be that far removed from the old advisory council system if the affiliate bodies were able to come back and comply in terms of gender and diversity, as we have seen with the FAI. Would that be fair to say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Horse Sport Ireland (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Joe Flaherty: But the industry does not like that.