Results 2,441-2,460 of 7,788 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I was very interested listening to Professor Thorne. He spoke about the IPCC and the Paris Agreement and all these different things. He also spoke about gas and how detrimental that is in the line of methane and problems in that regard. Is Professor Thorne surprised that natural gas has become green in the EU, even though a cow seems to have become black?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Chair. That is all I have to say.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We had three professors before the committee during an earlier session who spoke about methane and the different types of methane - methane from gases and methane from cattle. One third of the methane produced in the world comes from cattle. To put it simply, they gave figures to show that if we got rid of every animal in the world, that would only change the temperature by one third of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am sorry for interrupting Mr. Kierans. The future of Irish farming is at stake in the next week or two and he says it is slow for these people to do X, Y and Z. Someone could lose their livelihood because someone in some other country is slow or the people who collate the figures or make the decisions and are dressed up in suits are slow and it does not matter to them. Is that the way we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Hold on, they are default figures. Let us be clear on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We have default figures. It is now recognised and can no longer be questioned that we had default figures and that the new figures are totally different. In the meantime, we are going to set targets that will be detrimental, one way or the other, for the family farms around this country. It is like building a house. You either put in a proper foundation and it stays up or you put in a bad...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Kierans may have listened to the contributions of the representatives of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Does he accept that for the next three or four years, we will have to wait on new technologies? We heard from Dr. Mitloehner this morning. In California, a new additive given to dairy cows has reduced methane emissions by 30%. It has been approved by the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It was not voted for by both Houses of the Oireachtas. It was voted for by some Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Kierans does not think we may have more options when we see the proof of the different technologies being looked at. Is he not hopeful about those?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Kierans referred-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Kierans referred to the two Ministers talking. No Minister suffers divine inspiration. They have teams of civil servants, including Mr. Kierans, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has the officials in his Department. These civil servants advise the Ministers and look at this, that and the other scenario. I assume Mr. Kierans is one of the people who are doing that....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Kierans will have a good idea of what is on the table in the papers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The Civil Service puts the stuff together for the Minister. A Minister does not sit down and write everything up and give all the alternatives over and back. I have a good idea how government works. I am asking Mr. Kierans what is laid out for the different scenarios between the 22% and 30% figures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, so we are going to hear nothing. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has looked at different scenarios. I spoke to some of the officials early in this debate and my understanding at the time was that we were going down the road where the ordinary farmer would keep under the 170 nitrates limit, there would be different allowances on fertiliser and that basically farmers...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is Mr. Crammond's opinion, though? I want to get this clear. In everything we heard earlier, which was painted a bit rosy, there was no talk of a forced cull. Is that the scenario all the time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The following was spoken about earlier. We had, I think, the OPW and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine at one of our committee meetings, at which it was stated that a contract would be put out to get LiDAR done on all of the country to know what we have and what we do not have. My understanding was that the tender was to go out last October. That was the timeline we were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: They were directed at Mr. Blackwell.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: When?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We heard in October that it would be in spring. Now we hear that it will be later in the year. Someone needs to get a grip of this. Does the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have a scenario in this regard? This is what we need to know as politicians. We need to be able to tell the people out there what the scenario would be with a reduction of 22%. Would it be that you...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Can a commitment be given that we will drive the reporting of methane emissions from the agricultural sector agenda in order to ensure that it is recognised in a different status by other countries? Can the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine give an undertaking here before there is any announcement of 5%, 8% or whatever percentage will be talked about? Will the Department give...