Results 241-260 of 23,948 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (7 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Under the Control of Horses Act 1996, local authorities may take a range of actions in relation to equines including prohibiting horses in certain areas, the issuing of licences and the seizure of horses in contravention of the Act. These powers can be used in respect of straying horses, which includes horses put on land without the owner’s permission, including public land. Local...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Schemes (7 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The responsibility for the licencing of commercial draft net fishing comes under the remit of Inland Fisheries Ireland. As such any queries regarding grant aid available to draft net licence holders should be addressed to Inland Fisheries Ireland, which is under the aegis of my colleague at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Minister Eamon Ryan TD. My...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Land Issues (7 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Issues relating to the ownership of private property are subject to very significant and complex legal, constitutional and policy considerations. Any statutory limitations on the sale of farmland would be subject to such all of these considerations. For example, from a policy perspective, limitations on the sale of farmland land for non-farming purposes , could reduce the availability of...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (7 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Of the 5,664 Tranche 1 ACRES participants in county Mayo, 5,190 have had their 2023 payment claim fully processed. Work is continuing on the processing of the remaining 474 cases. GLAS payments are also continuing to issue. At this point, 4,840 payment claims of Mayo participants have been fully processed for the final year of the scheme, while 157 payment claims remain to be processed....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulations (6 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 110 and 111 together. My Department is the Competent Authority in Ireland with responsibility for pesticides (plant protection products and biocides). This includes responsibility for policy and implementation of controls regarding the placing on the market and use of pesticides, including Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009. Pesticides are regulated under EU...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (6 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Market volatility arises from a variety of factors, including geo-political and weather events. In the agriculture sector, we have just been through a period of higher input costs and falling output prices, exacerbated by challenging weather conditions. However, the outlook is now more positive, as input costs have fallen by 7% in the year to the end of August, with output prices up by 18% in...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Capital Expenditure Programme (6 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme provides grants to farmers to build and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. To date, 830 farmers in counties Louth and Meath have received €12,924,791.84 in grant aid since 2020, with payments continuing to issue on a weekly basis. As the Herd number identifies holdings at a county level it...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (6 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The implementation of the Bovine TB Eradication Strategy 2021-2030 is overseen by the Bovine TB Stakeholders Forum along with support from three working groups – a Scientific group, an Implementation Working Group and a Finance Group to ensure all aspects of the Strategy are addressed. The Bovine TB Stakeholders Forum and its working groups comprise representatives from across the...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: We have said that as well, though. That structure is in place. The default is that if there is an overpayment on a farmer's account from one scheme, it is taken off another. The structure I put in place was that any farmers who had overpayments could ask for it to be attached to their ACRES. Therefore, it will come out of their next ACRES payment or the one after that. It is ring-fenced....

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes, I know. Nobody wants to see-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: There is research ongoing on vaccines in different spaces. The particular challenges for us, as an exporting nation, is that when you use the vaccine, whenever you test for TB, it is hard to identify if it is actually TB or the vaccine. That then becomes a challenge for us being able to export those animals. Since 90% of our animals are exported, that is a real difficulty. This is always...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: Possibly. I hope we do find something. If we had a vaccine, it would have a significant role to play. In the meantime, we need to double back through the TB stakeholder forum. I have been engaging with the various members of the forum, as well as the farming organisations. We all need, through that forum, to look at the full suite of issues that are affecting the increase in TB levels...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The coming year will be the first year of our new three-year agreement. I have increased the commitment to the World Food Programme by 40%. Previously, it was €25 million per year and it is now €35 million per year. We all know the good impact that has in very food vulnerable areas, which I saw myself last St. Patrick's Day. I chose to go to South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: In 2024, organic payments were paid from B3 and savings in B15 were recycled within the Vote. B3 relates to agri-environmental schemes.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: The big challenge relating to forestry was a court decision in 2019.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: We have paid more than all of it, in some instances.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: That is the challenge with an interim payment; it is a blunt instrument. For example, farmers with a small landholding may not have been in line for a big score, yet they would have received the standard interim payment.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: We were utilising the remainder of the European Union recovery instrument, EURI, funding which is a specific stream of funding and it was 100% refundable. As the organic scheme is a continuation from the previous rural development programme, rather than being a new CAP scheme, it was one of the few schemes which was actually eligible for drawing down EURI funding. We redirected that in...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: This radically changed the assessment process, overnight, for forestry licensing and meant that a very significant increase in human resources was required to be able to consider a licence. It led to the development of a very significant backlog, which took until the last year for us to be able to rectify. Unfortunately, ACRES has proven to be much more complex than many of the other...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary) (5 Nov 2024)

Charlie McConalogue: What the Deputy described happening in France is pretty much what I have done here.