Results 15,081-15,100 of 23,995 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department does not provide direct supports for contractors but, as small businesses, they are of course eligible for the same supports as every other small business. In relation to capital investments for on-farm developments, I would like to clarify that the EU regulations that provide for the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) under the Rural Development Programme...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte Teoranta (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Coillte is a private limited company established under the Forestry Act 1988 and, as such, is operationally independent from my Department. I have, therefore, referred the matter to Coillte for direct follow-up with the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I am committed to helping the Forgotten farmers cohort. The Programme for Government ‘Our Shared Future’ contains a commitment to seek to resolve the issue of support for the category of farmers known as Forgotten Farmers. I have asked officials in my Department to examine options to address the issue of forgotten farmers both through the next CAP and also through other measures...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing Industry (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 472 and 473 together. Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), established under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001, is a commercial State Body responsible for the overall administration, promotion and development of the horse racing industry. The Irish Horse Racing Industry Act 1994 and The Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016 (Remuneration and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Ireland's draft CAP Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027 which lists the range of interventions currently being proposed, was submitted to the EU Commission on 31st December 2021. As you may be aware, one of the intervention proposed therein is an agri-environment climate measure (AECM). This proposed measure includes a Rare Breeds action. The details of the proposed scheme are...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The objective of the 2021 BEEP-S was to further increase economic and environmental efficiency in the suckler herd though improvement in the quantity and quality of performance data that is collected. The scheme opened for applications on 16th March 2021 and closed without late penalty on 26th April 2021. It remained open, albeit with a late penalty from 27th April 2021 until 21st May 2021. ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (3 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued 4,050 forestry licences last year, which is an increase of 56% on the number issued in 2020 . In terms of the categories of each type of licence issued, these approvals included 2,877 felling licences. Critically, the availability of this volume of timber, at nearly 8.5 million cubic metres, stabilised supply to the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I welcome the opportunity to present the Revised Estimates for 2022 to the committee. Budget 2022 was set with the ongoing challenges of Brexit and Covid in the background and in the transition between the current Common Agricultural Policy and the new CAP. The agriculture Vote for 2022 provides my Department with the resources to deal with these current challenges and opportunities across...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The point on TAMS is very relevant. I have completed and implemented a review of the costings and another review is ongoing. I also announced my intention to increase the ceiling from €80,000 to €90,000 as part of the next CAP. I acknowledge the Chairman's point in regard to the pressure on costs over the past year. I will consider the matter further, taking on board the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I am not sure what the various reasons might be. Every farmer's reason will be different. We had the REAP as well, but that was for farmers not currently in GLAS. There was a very successful uptake of that, which shows, even for those who are outside of GLAS, the appetite that is there to come into a scheme. My approach to GLAS was to try to make sure that, while we were in the two...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Is the Deputy talking about TAMS?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: We are dealing with it. Although it has not been dealt with or completed yet, we are making progress on it every month. Members know, as I do, that this time last year there was a real crisis in the sector. Sawmills that would normally have sourced their logs from Irish forest were not able to get those logs and sawmills that did not want to import logs were importing. Thankfully, we are...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I inform the Deputy that the Agriculture Appeals Office operates independently of my Department. I have been informed that an appeal was received by the Agriculture Appeals Office from the person named in October 2021. Following receipt of the appeal, the Agriculture Appeals Office wrote to the person named to request further documentation in order to progress the appeal. Once the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I inform the Deputy that the Agriculture Appeals Office operates independently of my Department. The Office has responsibility for agriculture appeals and also provides administrative and secretariat support to the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) which was established in February 2018. In addition to their agriculture appeal functions, Appeals Officers are also appointed as members of the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Forest road applications are received and decided daily. Applications received from Coillte are treated the same as applications from private individuals. For week ending 21stJanuary, my Department issued 29 forest road licences, 19 of these were from Coillte and the remaining 10 were private applicants. However, the following week ending 28thJanuary, 11 road licences were issued to...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 811 and 812 together. My Department does not comment on matters relating to individual staff members.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: Young forest crops at establishment phase are generally the most vulnerable to significant frost damage. My Department has recently launched a Reconstitution of Woodland scheme to address frost damage in recently planted forest crops and is currently receiving applications. We will continue to engage with stakeholders on its operation.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: The Results Based Environment Agri Pilot Programme (REAP) is designed to trial the results-based approach on a national basis and to test the upscaling potential of the model for inclusion in the next national agri-environment scheme to follow GLAS. REAP incentivises farmers to maintain and improve the environmental condition of their land. At applications stage, farmers could bring in...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 815 and 816 together. While overall forestry licensing improved significantly last year, afforestation has not improved as we would like with just over 4,200ha approved last year. Improving afforestation licensing is a key priority for 2022. A detailed licensing plan for 2022 was published last week which has as its main target the issuing of 5,250 licences...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (8 Feb 2022)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 817 and 818 together. To the end of last year, 3,601 tree felling licence applications were received, split between 2,299 Coillte and 1,309 private applications (64%/36% respectively). The greater number of applications received are from Coillte, which is responsible for much of the mature national forest estate and supplies 75% of logs to sawmills. The tree...