Results 2,321-2,340 of 24,020 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: It is something to which we have been giving a lot of attention. We are engaged with the Department of public expenditure on this matter at the moment as well. We want to make a significant step forward in this space. It is an important issue for us. We are working in terms of those proposals that can be agreed. The other thing we said to anybody who has ash dieback at the moment is...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The Chairman is lenient, he is okay.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Work is ongoing and there has been good engagement in that regard. There is no agreement yet or plan as such. The funding would not be a barrier to that were we to reach an agreement. We would be able to accommodate that and work around it if an agreement or decision was made. There is, however, continuing engagement in that regard. Going back to the Cathaoirleach's previous point...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: If we were to extend the closed periods, we would also be increasing the level of storage that would be needed. We cannot pay for people to come up to current compliance. Where-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: If we were providing such a window of opportunity, it would only apply to those who are currently compliant but who would be needing to do extra to stay compliant with any changes that would be made. We can provide windows like that, but we do not have state aid cover to be able to pay for compliance with existing regulations.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: There is a significant reduction on administration and non-pay under subhead A2. That is due to the fact that in 2023, there was a €64 million spend under the Brexit adjustment reserve for the inspection post in Rosslare Europort. That was a one-off expenditure in 2023, which is not there this year because that is now operational and working very well and doing the job it was built...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: That again relates to the Brexit adjustment reserve. There was a €20 million spend last year in funding for a meat and bone meal disposal project under the Brexit adjustment reserve. That entirely reflects the reduction there.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes, I brought an extra €22 million to the table last year so that means, for example, last year it would have been approximately €50 million to start off. I am allocating €57 million to start off this year. It was a really challenging year in terms of figures. We hope to make progress on that this year but it is something we will have to monitor as the year goes on....

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The Deputy is referring to a reduction in the figure last year for phasing out the previous green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, and transitional payments under that. With regard to the ACRES agri-environmental scheme, €200 million has been allocated this year under subhead B14 and that is up from €146 million last year. We have the full 46,000 in there. We have...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Our plan this year is to cover our obligations there. That will be on the basis of 50,000 approvals. I will check that further for the Deputy.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: I see what Deputy Kerrane is referring to.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: We have had more than 8,000 applications, almost 9,000.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: That is what I have approval for coming out of the budget.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: There is a ranking and selection criteria which would have been part of the application process from the outset. That would have been part of the terms and conditions from the outset in the event of oversubscription.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: It remains to be seen. I have accepted everybody into the scheme and I want everyone to stay in it. Certainly, we will pay full payments for that for last year and this year. We recently had the issue around the changes to the star ratings and they are making adjustments to make sure that farmers are protected within the actual SCEP for its duration. My full expectation this year is that...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: We are working our way through them. There was a record intake last time, around the middle of last year, with 8,200 applicants, so we laid out a timetable at the back end of last year to run up to March for all of those items and categories to be worked through. The Department did, and continues to, have a priority authorisation for applicants who need to get on with it quickly. They can...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: At the moment, 3,700 out of 8,200 applications have been approved.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The Department with responsibility for public expenditure has the BAR fund. With regard to the scheme the Department availed of, there was a very significant uptake and follow-through on the expenditure on those. Of all the Government Departments we would have been the Department which had the most significant spend and worked to try to find every angle we possibly could to draw down...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Do we have any of those figures here? It is small in the overall context. Certainly, in terms of the dates the Department set, from memory, we set adjusted dates last year because it was the first year, to try to ensure we hit payment percentages on the dates we had set. Approximately 90% of farmers got their payments - BISS, ANC and all of that - on the date we set. By the end of last...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The team is still working on that. It has been challenging and indeed disappointing. We made the decision last year to accept all 46,000 who applied because we did not want anyone to not be in the scheme last year. We also wanted to get all of those paid for their work last year by December. Unfortunately, that was not possible. We are working towards trying to get those payments for the...