Results 181-200 of 666 for at speaker:Martin Heydon

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Agriculture Industry (10 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: The Senator is right. The role of the Government is to support sheep farmers in the very important work they do. With every reference year there are hard cases and challenges. It is definitely to the benefit of farmers that we move the reference year from 2014-15 to 2017 because it will bring in more ewes. The terms of reference for the wool feasibility study involve the identification of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: I acknowledge the Senator's passion for farm safety and the engagement I have had with him on his proposed Bill. I acknowledge the meetings we have had on farm safety. It is a topic very close to his heart. There is no single action that can solve the problem. If it were easily solved, the unacceptably high rate of fatalities on Irish farms would have been addressed long before now. It is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Martin Browne for his contribution. I am a suckler farmer based in south Kildare, with a mixed enterprise involving tillage, and I am acutely aware of what the Deputy has outlined. On hoping that the €2 million will be enough, to be honest this is not all about money. Much of what is involved is a change of culture and ensuring that all of us in the farming set-up,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: ...the cross-party consensus on farm safety. We all want to see success in this area and it is one of those issues where political differences remain outside the door because we are all in the same boat. We all know of families in our constituencies that have been impacted by farm safety incidents. I assure the Deputy that this allocation of €2 million is new funding. It is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: As I said earlier, farmers' mental health and well-being is integrally linked to farm safety. As far as I am concerned they are the same and one cannot look at them in isolation. I definitely share the concerns. Farmers work in isolation anyway. It is the nature of the job and it then makes it harder when the pressure is on. We are all aware of the impact that Covid has had on farmers....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: ...me this evening to speak on the important topic of farm safety. I am joined this evening by officials from my Department, Mr. Michael Moloney, senior inspector and head of crop policy, evaluation and certification division with responsibility for farm safety, and Dr. Robert Leonard, agricultural inspector on farm safety. Farm safety is an important area in the programme for Government and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Senator for his comments. He is right. The point that struck me from what he said was that no one expects a farm safety incident to happen to them. I tend to refer to incidents rather than accidents because they are unintentional but, many times when you engage with families after a tragic incident, they admit there was an element to it that was probably preventable, if an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: I apologise for the poor connection. It is not 100% but we cannot blame it on the Irish national broadband plan. I am in Glasgow at the COP26 meeting and our Scottish broadband could do with being a little bit better. I was determined to participate in the committee today and when the invitation came in I asked the Chair if he could change the timing. I embraced that change so that I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Farm Safety: Discussion (3 Nov 2021)

Martin Heydon: Absolutely. The idea of work experience is the young farmer gains that knowledge. I know I did when I did my green cert over 20 years ago. It is about working on a different host farm and people learn more on another farm than they might at home working for parents, etc. It is a very valuable part of the green cert. I would not want to see a position where somebody takes advantage of a...

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Financial Resolution No. 2: General (Resumed) (13 Oct 2021)

Martin Heydon: ...2022 in an overall sense. I believe it is a fair and balanced approach for all of our citizens. From an agricultural perspective, and in this time of transition, farmers can have confidence that this budget protects farm family incomes and supports actions to improve safety and sustainability on farms. Farm safety is an issue of great importance for me, my Department and the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Fishing Industry (7 Oct 2021)

Martin Heydon: I agree. We should always look at our processes and make sure they are robust and are protecting our environment and the sustainability of our future stocks, as is the case. In some ways, I would argue that perhaps the survey the Deputy points to in the North that advised that there not be harvesting in those areas actually show that the system of surveying is working. This is done on an...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Fishing Industry (7 Oct 2021)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Bacik for raising this important issue. It is important to state from the outset that mussel seed is an essential raw material for the bottom growing mussel aquaculture industry. Mussel farmers fish for wild mussel seed for transplantation onto their licensed aquaculture sites for ongoing and later harvesting over a two-year growth cycle. The fished seed is grown to maturity...

Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Second Stage (21 Sep 2021)

Martin Heydon: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to introduce the Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 to the House. By way of background I should advise that EU Council Regulation No. 1224/2009, known as the control regulation, establishes a community control system for ensuring compliance with rules of the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, and establishing a...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Northern Ireland (21 Sep 2021)

Martin Heydon: I would like to start by thanking the Senator for raising this most important matter. I wish to pass on the apologies of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is out of the country at present and unfortunately unable to attend this debate. As the Senator has outlined, the legacy of the Troubles continues to impact upon many families and communities across the island and beyond as they...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Agriculture Schemes (15 Sep 2021)

Martin Heydon: .... As has been rightly outlined, 2019 was a very difficult year for beef farmers. There was a need for support to help them cope with market difficulties, which were largely driven by Brexit. That is why we fought hard to get money from Europe to establish the beef exceptional aid measure, BEAM, which ended up with €77 million being paid to 33,000 farmers in 2019, €50...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Agriculture Schemes (15 Sep 2021)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Deputies for their supplementary points. The fact of the matter is that almost €72 million of the €77 million has gone to beef farmers. Some 19,000 farmers met the scheme's requirements and have exited the scheme because of that. Deputy Cahill is right in saying the scheme was not over-subscribed. It was under-subscribed. A number of beef farmers who were in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Farm Safety (15 Jul 2021)

Martin Heydon: The CAP is a fantastic opportunity for us to do that, but there other measures I have introduced over the past year. My Department and I launched a call under the locally led innovation partnership model, specifically related to farm safety and a first for farm safety, at the end of 2020. It will see the provision of at least €1 million in funding support for farm safety initiatives....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Industry (15 Jul 2021)

Martin Heydon: I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this important point. As he will be aware, political agreement on CAP reform was reached at the end of June. The agreement strikes the right balance between ensuring a fair distribution of payments between farmers and achieving a higher level of environmental and climate ambition. This is a fair, flexible and farmer-friendly deal in the context of the many...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Industry (15 Jul 2021)

Martin Heydon: I am very interested to learn more about that co-operative approach. I assure the Deputy that although we sometimes get caught up in discussing brand new and shiny initiatives that have never been done before, as far as I am concerne, as Minister of State with responsibility for new market development, it is not about reinventing the wheel; it is actually about looking at indigenous elements...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Horticulture Sector (15 Jul 2021)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has no involvement in the regulation of peat extraction. As the Deputy outlined, this issue crosses several Departments. My Department does not have an involvement in the regulation of peat extraction. This is a planning process under the remit of the Department of Housing, Local...