Results 1,801-1,820 of 10,843 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: I welcome Mr. Gleeson and his team and thank them for making themselves available this evening. In view of the limited time, I will go straight to discussing a pertinent issue. There are reports that the European Commission has made a ruling on the withdrawal of the derogation relating to fish weigh-ins at factories. This matter is being reported in terms that Ireland cannot be trusted...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: Can Mr. Gleeson indicate whether the Department will be challenging the findings? I take it that that is what he is saying in the context of the engagement with the Commission.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: I will touch on the TB eradication programme because the figures can appear stark when taken in a certain context. I looked through the figures for previous years and discovered that the spend on the TB eradication programme in 2014 was more than €86 million and that 16,000 cases of TB were detected. Last year, the spend was €98 million and 23,000 cases detected. Where this...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: To be absolutely clear, I am not disputing that we need to do all we can to eradicate TB but I am contemplating whether our investment has delivered. It is very difficult to get a breakdown and to extrapolate the exact detail of the funding that is attributed to the Exchequer. Can the Department provide the committee with a detailed breakdown of the Exchequer funds for 2019 and 2020?

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: A breakdown would be useful. Finally, with the indulgence of the Chair, I wish to touch on environmental schemes, particularly in the context of the new scheme that is coming down the tracks and that is in pilot phase at the moment. If we go back to the old REPS, the Holy Grail to which farmers want to return, the average payment was approximately €4,500. The GLAS payment was around...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: I want to go back to the interaction with Deputy Munster, in which it was stated that essentially, funding is allocated to the horse and greyhound fund and it is up to the organisations to spend or distribute that as they see fit. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: This year the Department allocated an additional €12 million to the horse and greyhound fund, which is a lot of money in the middle of a pandemic. It seems utterly bizarre that this would be done without any idea of how the funds would be distributed.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: Before Dr. Smyth comes in, could I put the specific question to him? The backbone of the horse industry are local breeders the length and breadth of this country. They are the people who provide the benefit to our local economy and to our rural communities. They are the people who are the bedrock of the outstanding successes we have seen in the Grand National and elsewhere, yet they are...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: To clarify, and I am sorry for cutting across Dr. Smyth, contrary to what we heard earlier, the Department does have a view that this is actually the best way of distributing the funding to the sector.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: But does Dr. Smyth accept that there is a huge concentration in the division of that prize money-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: -----to a very small number of trainers and that most breeders actually get damn-all? I am referring to the people who do all the work, making our industry the success that it is internationally.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: But not from the taxpayer. This is the point. Yes, they are absolutely-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: The Irish taxpayer should not be supporting them at the expense of the smaller breeders who are the backbone of the industry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Proposed Amendments to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions: Discussion (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: I thank the Chairman and our guests. I commend Mr. Duffy on his role and period as president of Macra na Feirme. I wish Mr. Keane all the best. I am sure the Chairman will agree that, for a Tipperary man, trying to follow in the footsteps of a Cavan man is always an unenviable position to be in. However, I have no doubt Mr. Keane will manage very well with the guidance and support of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Proposed Amendments to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions: Discussion (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: In my end of the country, we consider everyone down there the same. Through our deliberations, all members of the committee agree that if we do not create the conditions to allow young people to enter farming and be sustainable and profitable in that endeavour, the Irish family farm as we know it will not be in place in a generation. The work of Macra na Feirme is crucial. The outworkings...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (21 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: 3. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee dealing with infrastructure last met; and when it will next meet. [19937/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (21 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: Can the Taoiseach inform us whether the Cabinet committee that deals with infrastructure has discussed the issue of the North-South interconnector? The decision by EirGrid to underground the Kildare and Meath high voltage power lines means that the North-South interconnector is the only project in EirGrid's GRID25 plans that it intends to pursue using overhead, pylon supported power lines. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Shared Island Unit (21 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: 10. To ask the Taoiseach if the shared island unit in his Department has conducted an economic appraisal of the challenges and benefits a united Ireland will present. [19938/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Shared Island Unit (21 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: I thank the Taoiseach for the update on the activities of the shared island unit. It is important to note on the record of the House that he and his Government failed to take an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to creating an all-Ireland civil debate by ensuring there would be a unionist voice in the Seanad, when he stitched up yet another back-room deal between his party and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pay (21 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: 56. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the role his Department played in setting the salary level for the Secretary General of the Department of Health; if he is satisfied that the new salary is justified; if he has concerns that the increase in salary for this position will lead to further pay claims in other Departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter....