Results 21,741-21,760 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: Yes, for the harbours, but not for the seafood development programme.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: There are two priority projects on which we hope to make major progress in the next five years. One is in Castletownbere, where we have committed to spending approximately €20 million on extending the Dinish pier to accommodate a significant increase in both foreign landings and activity generally. The second will be in Rossaveal, where we are considering an investment project over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: If that happens, we will have to get a Supplementary Estimate if it is a major amount of money. That will have to come through in the same way as on the last occasion. When there were bad storms two or three years ago a €70 million fund was put together by the then Minister, former Deputy Phil Hogan, and that was spent through different Departments. Our Department spent...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: No, we must look at the expenditure profile and when we can spend the money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: This project is very close to Deputy Seán Kyne's heart, so we are working hard to try to get it done.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: We have not published any detail on that yet. The capital plan was only agreed yesterday.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: The capital plan was only agreed yesterday. We will launch the full details of the Rossaveal profile of expenditure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: I cannot do it today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: No. The profile of the spend will have to be agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: I will try to move through the questions more quickly. We will spend €20 million on GLAS this year. There will be 26,000 farmers in GLAS. We will open a second round of GLAS for applications starting, hopefully, in the week of 12 October. We will accept another 10,000 or so. They will start their membership of GLAS from 1 January next and they will be paid next year. There will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: They will harvest maybe 70 acres of trees but leave the rest of the plantation, so that we have piecemeal harvesting of trees as opposed to being able to clean out 200 or 300 acres, if it makes sense to do that in one year, and averaging the income over four or five years to take into account the taxation treatment. There is real frustration in the forestry sector on this issue. To be fair...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am convinced by the arguments and we will continue to try to make the case. Deputy Heydon asked about the beef scheme. The irony of the beef genomics scheme is that a lot of farmers who decided, for whatever reason, that they did not want to get into it now want to get into it. If we are not spending the full amount that we anticipated we would spend - and we may be slightly under that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: I sample. One can get them even on planes now. The product plays a great role as an ambassador for the Irish food industry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: The more companies there are such as the Senator's, the more a light is shone for others to follow. Other people say: "That could be me if I put the right plan in place." Four and a half years ago, Bord Bia had 350 companies on its books, but it is now helping approximately 750. That is an indication of what is happening in the small foods sector. Some of them are not small any more but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: Macra na Feirme, the IFA and other farming organisations have done a great deal of work in this area and on land mobility issues generally, particularly Macra. Macra has taken on somebody whose full-time job is to talk to farmers about land mobility and to put arrangements in place. They asked me at the ploughing championships whether, over a certain amount per acre of spend, one would not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: We will look at it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: That is a negotiation between ourselves and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: That is an ongoing negotiation. My intention where possible is to ensure that it does not impinge on any other spending programme that we have an Estimate for and that this would be treated separately. We are negotiating with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to look at how that is paid and whether farmers contribute or the State picks up some or all of that burden. We will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: We may need a Supplementary Estimate if we have to spend money on it this year. It is something we need to finalise with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Sep 2015)

Simon Coveney: There is.