Results 2,381-2,400 of 7,788 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: A cow is a unit at the moment, unless it changes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Generally a dairy man does not hold the calves. They get rid of the calves and hold replacements, at 20%.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I am only going by the figures I have just given. They show there are 928 farmers with over 300 units. There are 411 farmers with more than 400 units and then there are those with more than 500 units. A farm with more than 500 cows is not an ordinary family farm.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I am referring to the derogation. Has any analysis been done on how many cows would be gone if the derogation was removed? If the new figures, whereby the number may increase from 80 or 85 cows to 105 cows, are applied, it will affect everyone. That is the problem. Whether a farmer is in derogation or not, it could put push the farmer over. Have the groups before us done any analysis on that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: If there was no derogation in place, how many cows would farmers be forced to remove? On the other side, when we increase from 80 or 85 cows to 105, what type of figure would that be? Going by the figures I have looked at, is it fair to say that nearly any farm would go to 105 cows, given the way it is being done? All farms, those with under 170 cows and those with over 170 cows, will be...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Has any analysis been done?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The figures I have from the Department, which I presume are accurate, show that 691 farms with under 100 cows are in derogation. The figures for those with more than 100 cows keep going up.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The family farm is going to be badly affected when that comes in. Does Mr. Drennan agree?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Will Mr. McCormack give that figure again?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: With genetics and that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: The witnesses are right about the colleges and being in for the longer haul and that is good to see for young farmers. Thankfully, a lot of young farmers are doing the green cert. I know a few places that are booked out for another while and it is good that they are doing it. What is Mr. McCormack's vision going forward for the family farm as against the bigger farm in the context of...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I am sorry for interrupting but for any poor dairy farmer out there, my honest opinion is that anyone who is spreading fertiliser will not get much out of this agri-environment scheme because farmers will not be growing the flowers people are on about growing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I want to correct a point because I was looking at the figures. It is 6,113 farmers who have more than 100 cows and for those who have between 100 and 200 cows you can take-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: You cannot do something overnight because if people have commitments you cannot just take them out.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. McCormack talked about the stocking rates and so on, is the ICMSA or Teagasc doing anything to see if it is workable? I always have a vision of a suckler herd where we should produce a cow that would rear two calves. One on its own is not able to do that. Is there any work being done by Teagasc and organisations such as the ICMSA that would help with the stocking rates, and all that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: One thing we need to do as a committee, which I will propose and perhaps it may be seconded, is where Mr. Drennan mentioned earlier that the EPA report has been held up for so long and that the ICMSA did not receive it. There is a duty on the EPA to give the report to the ICMSA and to publish it for the betterment of all, in the first instance. When the Department appears before the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses. The Department talks of a review. It needs to be up front and straight with farmers. It cannot just tell someone with a certain number of cows that the provision will be gone next week, month or year. Have the officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage seen the report on water quality? The previous set of witnesses stated the report...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: It is on water quality.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: Why was it always issued in July? Now, funnily enough, it is a few months late.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Nitrates Derogation and Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Michael Fitzmaurice: My next question is for the officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. They talk about different problems, including those associated with nitrogen and phosphorus. There are a lot of towns around Ireland where effluent from sewage-treatment plants goes into the rivers we talk about. Funnily enough, the farmer always gets kicked around the place about this....