Results 21,541-21,560 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agriculture Scheme Payments (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy's questions are fair. A package worth €500 million has been secured, which is a really good delivery by Commissioner Hogan, because the expectation was that the package would be a lot less. Approximately €420 million of the funding will be spent on what are called national envelopes to enable a positive impact within countries on the income of dairy and pig farmers....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agriculture Scheme Payments (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: It is true that farmers want to be paid as soon as possible from a cashflow point of view. On 16 October, a 75% advance payment on single farm payments will be made, which will amount to €750 million in payments to farmers, €250 million more than would normally be given out at that time of year. This is one of a number of measures to help farmers in terms of cashflow. There...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Agriculture Scheme Payments (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: This is populist stuff that the Deputy knows is not possible. There is no additional package for sheep farmers. What we are talking about is a fund provided by Europe of €500 million to support the dairy and pigmeat sectors because they have particular pricing problems this year. The price of lamb has not collapsed this year. I know sheep farmers are under pressure, which is why we...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Milk Quota (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: First, people did not get away with it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Milk Quota (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: What happened is that a concern was raised and we investigated it immediately. We interviewed people under caution without notice. We took a very serious view of what we understood to be the situation. The investigation happened straight away. The investigation has not taken 14 months; it took place straight away and was concluded within weeks but we then handed over the file to the Chief...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Milk Quota (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Having taken the actions we could take to remedy the situation, to fully audit the processor concerned and to get a full and detailed account from the processor concerned of how its systems could have allowed that to happen, we took all the actions we could. I have taken legal advice on the basis of the Chief State Solicitor's legal advice as to whether we were likely to succeed in taking a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Inshore Fisheries (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: The recommendation to which the Deputy refers requests that the Government examines the feasibility of heritage licences to be issued by the Department for rural coastal and island communities. The intended objective of such licences is, according to the report, to optimally facilitate traditional fishing practices in conjunction with the establishment of a producer organisation representing...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: We will sort it out, yes.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am delivering what I said I would deliver, which is to increase incrementally and as quickly as we can the numbers coming into GLAS to get expenditure up to the maximum we have committed to under the scheme. We are getting there faster than I think most people predicted, but it cannot happen overnight and everybody understands that. There is a particular challenge with putting...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Milk Quota (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. My Department has carried out an investigation into allegations that milk collections from a milk supplier were credited to another milk supplier and that this was being facilitated by the milk purchaser concerned. Having received the report on the investigation, I instructed that a number of corrective actions be undertaken by all parties...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Milk Quota (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I was also concerned about this case. As soon as I heard about it, we initiated an investigation straight away. There were multiple interviews, some of them taken under caution. The matter was taken extremely seriously by my Department. The investigation has not been going on for 14 or 15 months. We had a very intensive investigation initially, as soon as we heard about this case. We...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: First, there are no cutbacks early in the scheme. Second, we always said the maximum payment for GLAS was €5,000, or €7,000 for GLAS+. We also said that we thought the average payment would be very close to the maximum payment of €5,000 because the majority of farmers would be able to draw down the full amount. Let us be accurate about what was said rather than trying...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I will come back to this later.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Today is 7 October. The Deputy asked if they will be paid by 1 October.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Okay.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: We want to pay out on GLAS for the last three months of this year - October, November and December - which is what we said we would do and which we are seeking to deliver. We are also seeking to take in as many new applicants under tranche 2 as we can. We have put a figure of 10,000 on that. We will not have 50,000 farmers in GLAS next year, rather we will have about 36,000 in it. That is...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: My Department recognises that controlled burning, properly planned and properly carried out, has a role to play in land management. This role is not just with regard to land-eligibility, but it can also play a beneficial role with regard to habitat conservation and enhancement. In particular, burning has traditionally been used to help manage land in upland areas and is one of the means by...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Sustainable growth is a basic principle of all of our agriculture policies and programmes - we are committed to ensuring that the sector continues to grow sustainably so that Ireland can play its part in meeting the increasing global food demand while having regard to our climate obligations. This is why my Department and its agencies have developed a series of innovative measures including...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Budget Submissions (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: The budget submissions of the farming organisations are mainly concerned with taxation and expenditure. Taxation policy is primarily the responsibility of the Minister for Finance. However I have on-going contact with Minister Noonan to ensure that taxation policy reflects the Government’s commitment to agriculture, as evidenced by our cooperation on the ‘Agri-taxation...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: GLAS Administration (7 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy is aware, the first tranche of GLAS proved hugely successful attracting nearly 27,000 applications in all. Applications were received from every single county and virtually every action was selected at some stage. On the basis of the plans submitted for the 27,000 applications received to date, we have already met or exceeded RDP targets for Low Input Permanent Pasture,...