Results 1,821-1,840 of 1,995 for speaker:Joe Flaherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: Being from rural Ireland, I am very aware of our game councils. There is nobody more passionate about conservation and wildlife than our game councils. These are people who live and breathe rural Ireland every day of the week. Will the witnesses give me a cast-iron assurance that NARGC will have a place at the stakeholder forum equal and on a par with any other agency on that and have the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I will take Mr. Ó Donnchú's commitment at face value. What the game councils tell me is that to date, they have had five meetings with the Minister of State, and I am conscious he is probably sitting behind me at the minute-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: -----and I have an excellent working relationship with the Minister of State but the game councils tell me he has had 50 meeting with environmental NGOs. It is very important, given the role NARGC has played in the cultivation, development, safeguarding and underpinning of values in rural Ireland. Our new Taoiseach said he would underpin everything that happens in rural Ireland as a key...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I am conscious of my time. The Department was aware of the shed and that it was part of the operation, because the animals came into it on the previous evening. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I know it is not part of the lairage but there would be an obvious expectation and understanding that the building was part of the slaughter chain. If that was the first point where the horses come in, surely somebody in the Department, during the lifetime of this horrendous operation, should have checked? Ultimately, two bodies are responsible for this - Shannonside Foods and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: That is great hindsight but, on reflection, does Mr. Sheahan think that if he had gone and looked inside that building when he visited the plant three years ago, he could have averted what happened?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I know, but Mr. Sheahan was aware that the horses were coming from that building. I cannot understand why nobody ever suggested looking inside the building.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: We have a vote coming and we have the other two bodies here. I understand and we have seen from the Committee of Public Accounts that the other two bodies probably do not have that much of regulatory or enforcement input in respect of what happened. However, they do have a major responsibility with regard to passports. Horse Sport Ireland will know that this has been a hobby horse of mine...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I join my colleague in commending the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on her steadfast commitment in this area. I know it has been the defining principle of her career to date. She has put the care, protection and well-being of our elderly and the people who made this country what it is to the forefront of her raison d'être in political life and she is to be commended on that. She...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I have a vested interest in ensuring we have safeguards in place for older people. We are, thanks to advances in medicine and the tireless efforts of staff in the HSE, living a lot longer. We want to continue living in our own homes and our own communities. We want to be surrounded by siblings and grandchildren. That is the least anyone can aspire to in a modern and progressive Ireland. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I appreciate the Chair's indulgence. I appreciate we are into a new consultation period with regard to the licensing issue and I would add the same caveat to that, which is that it is absolutely sacrosanct that NARGC is included in that process and that any contributions it makes are given the same weighting as any other organisation. There certainly is a view out there in the game council...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I will make a point of clarification before asking dhá cheist. I appreciate and empathise with the work the NPWS is doing. I see it at first hand on a local project. The Chair will agree that, the longer we stay in this job, the more cynical and sceptical we tend to get, so the witnesses will understand I am framing my question’s wording from that stance. I ask them to put...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: Good. I am satisfied with that response. I listened with interest to the comments about how important it was that everyone in our communities be involved, including farmers. I am particularly interested in Dr. Bleasdale’s work and I applaud his efforts to date. We do not have a Conor Pass in Longford, but we do have an Inchcleraun, an historic island in the middle of Lough Ree....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: Perfect. I thank Mr. Ó Donnchú.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I thank the witnesses for coming here today. I will try not to go back over old ground. The Chair already referred to the most startling point in Mr. Sheahan's opening statement. This is the admission that nobody ever visited the building where most of this took place. It is cloaked, to some degree, by saying it was not part of the lairage, but it was covered by general animal welfare...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: Our apologies again for the delay. We can blame democracy. I will come back to the thorny issue of passports. We are told that anything up to three and four foals were sold last year without a passport. Obviously, this raises questions about equine traceability. A question was put to Mr. Sheahan earlier in relation to the number of horses in Ireland that do not have passports. Can he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: Hypothetically, these are 200 animals that be gone into the ether.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: They could be gone into the ether where, for example, a farmer is destitute and has a foal that has no passport and that he is then just going to get rid of. Hypothetically, that animal is going to go unchecked somewhere.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: Have all the breeders received their foal kits for this year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Welfare, Treatment and Traceability of Horses: Discussion (26 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: That is my information from breeders. I will send Mr. Duggan an email with details for that large number tomorrow.