Results 15,781-15,800 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Tenant Purchase Scheme Administration (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: 582. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the time frame for laying the statutory instrument on the new tenant purchase scheme, which was signed on 17 November 2015, before the Houses of the Oireachtas; the reason for the delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42800/15]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I thank the witnesses. According to the presentation, the Irish market for organic produce is €110 million. How much of it is supplied by Irish, as opposed to imported? How much organic production is marketed, branded and sold as organic? Farmers produce beef organically and receive the top-ups and grants for doing so. However, when it goes to a factory, the factory sells it on as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Do not mind that; those are all Cheviot crosses. They are not the purebred blackface mountain lamb. They will sell anyway in the normal market. There is no a problem selling them. I am talking about blackface lamb.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is the blackface purebred that is the problem, because achieving the weight is a major challenge here with the blackface.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: One could have "Wild Atlantic lamb - Donegal" and "Wild Atlantic lamb - Mayo," if they want to keep their county colours as well, but there should be one brand, from Donegal to Kerry, of pure blackface. I am not talking about crossbreeds that can be sold on the normal market and would go into the French market. I am talking about those that would be more suitable to a southern European...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: They are very tasty.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What are the weights to which Mr. Fennell refers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: A lot of meal.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is 37 lbs in old fashioned weight. I will come back to the witness on this point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Of course the organic bodies are happy with it. Why would they not be? They are getting paid. The farmers are not happy with it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Who is "we"?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Mr. Zieg has said that we produce large quantities of organic farmed salmon. It fascinates me to think that a hill lamb which might only be given a fluke or worm dose and otherwise allowed to ramble the hill is not considered organic while a fish that is put in a cage, a totally unnatural environment, is considered organic. No one can try to tell me that organic fish farmers do not use...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes it is, but how is farmed salmon classified as organic? What is the definition used by Bord Bia in that context?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Are they allowed to determine this? Who decides, objectively, what is organic?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, but who do the certification bodies answer to? What standards are used? Is it a European standard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Who defines it as organic? Is it Bord Bia, the Department or the European Union, or is it self-certification?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Could the witnesses find out who is responsible?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I heard with interest what Mr Fennell said about the weight of sheep. I agree that Bord Bia has to try to satisfy the market, but on the other hand we have to recognise that there are physical limitations to what can be done. It is easy enough to get the sheep on the margins of the hills, in hill farms with kinder hills and better lowland up to what we call French weights, but further into...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The way things have been going, the guys on the margins are getting in on what Bord Bia is doing, but it is the people on the real hills who have the real problem. I have heard different suggestions, such as that since the lambs are not born until April, they would be defined as lambs until September of the following year because it is nearly impossible to get them on the winter trade. That...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Where are they?