Results 2,641-2,660 of 23,915 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department is committed to ensuring that a skilled and motivated workforce is in place to meet its priority business needs. Workforce planning processes are utilised to identify our requirements across all our grade streams and locations, aiming to ensure a long-term, proactive and strategic plan by which current and future staffing needs are addressed. Recruitment is currently under way...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: To meet the challenge of climate change, public supports and incentives, in conjunction with private industry supports, will all play an important role. My Department has put significant resources in place through the CAP Strategic Plan for the period up to 2027. The Plan combines a wide range of targeted interventions addressing specific Irish needs and delivers tangible results relating to...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My colleague, Minister of State Hackett, tasked an independent group to review existing Department supports for Ash Dieback. The group had a remit to review the existing and previous supports available to landowners with ash plantations funded under the National Forestry Programme and to engage with relevant stakeholders to seek their views on the current supports for ash forest owners. ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: All applicants in the Organic Farming Scheme are subject to annual validation checks to ensure the correct payments are made. These checks have identified some validation errors on the BISS application submitted by the person named. Once these have been rectified, their Organic Farming Scheme payment can proceed.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department has no record of an Organic Farming Scheme application for the person named, nor of an organic licence or organic land claimed on their 2023 BISS application. However, the Organic Farming Scheme is currently open for new applications until the 15th of December 2023 and they may apply if they so wish.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The BISS application of the person named, submitted under the reference number supplied, has now been linked to their partnership number. Pre-payment validation checks are currently being carried out on their Organic Farming Scheme application. 2023 Organic Farming Scheme payments commenced on the 8December, and payments will continue to be processed as the validation checks are completed.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The number of eligible farmers in County Monaghan who have received a payment under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) in 2023 to date, and the average payment per farmer are shown in the table below: Year Number Paid Gross Paid Average payment National...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Food Industry (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I am delighted to formally establish the office of An Rialálaí Agraibhia today, Wednesday 13th December. The primary legislation required to establish the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Act was signed into law by President Higgins on 11 July 2023. Since then the focus was on undertaking the necessary steps to formally commence the Act and establish the Office. The...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Aquaculture Industry (13 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department considers applications for aquaculture licences in accordance with the provisions of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997, the Foreshore Act 1933 (as amended) and applicable national and EU legislation. The licensing process involves consultation with a wide range of scientific and technical advisers as well as various Statutory Consultees. Once an application has been...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department is responsible for S.I. No. 63/2015, the Microchipping of Dogs Regulation 2015 and S.I. 427/2015 - Microchipping of Dogs (Amendment) Regulations 2015. Under these Regulations, all dogs over 12 weeks of age (or younger if sold before 12 weeks) must be microchipped. It is illegal to sell/supply a dog that is not microchipped. The microchip number must be registered; this helps...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Supports (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: EU Regulations governing the administration of the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme and other area-based schemes require that full and comprehensive checks are completed before any payments issue. The 2023 BISS application of the person named has now been processed and any payments due to the applicant will issue over the coming days.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Industry (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: There is no funding provided by my Department for the specific purpose of upgrading mart infrastructure to meet health and safety standards. The support my Department provided in 2023 was for existing marts to upgrade their equipment following the introduction of mandatory electronic identification (EID) of cattle. The Mart EID Upgrade Scheme closed on 10th November 2023.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department has significantly increased the number of permanent ecologists working in the Department over the last number of years. The Department also utilise ecologists on a contract basis. Permanent ecologists now work in several Divisions of my Department and provide useful expertise as we are dealing with biodiversity related policy and scheme delivery matters. Earlier this year a...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Harbours and Piers (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: At the beginning of this year, I announced a capital investment package of €37.3m for the six Fishery Harbour Centres as part of the 2023 Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme. This includes a number of projects valued over €100,000 and costs of the works intended to be undertaken within 2023. Details of the project allocation are available in tabular...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department’s agri-environment scheme, ACRES, requires an agricultural activity on the parcels included in a farmer’s contract, as set out in the Terms and Conditions of the scheme. Notwithstanding this, the new CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 (CSP) allows for areas of established woodland to be regarded as a beneficial feature in agricultural parcels, thus allowing for these...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Forestry Programme 2023-2027 provides a range of schemes to support the establishment and management of forests. Ireland's recently published Forest Strategy recognises the importance of forests and the wide range of ecosystem services they provide. Sustainably managed forests also make a significant contribution to the rural economy and contribute to Ireland's climate targets by removing...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Sector (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) is the body approved in Ireland in accordance with relevant EU legislation to conduct testing, genetic evaluation and publication of breeding values for dairy and beef cattle have recently updated beef breeding indexes. This was the first major update since 2015, based predominately on changing economic drivers such as feed costs and beef...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agriculture Schemes (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 604 and 618 together. The Terms and Conditions for Tranche 2 of ACRES are published on my Department’s website. One of the eligibility requirements for a farmer to participate is the submission of a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application for 2022. A further requirement is that all lands must also be declared in the applicant’s 2023 Basic...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Promoting and safeguarding plant health is a key strategic principle of the Plant Health and Biosecurity Strategy 2020-2025. Ireland is a contracting party of the International Plant Protection Convention of the United Nations, as well as an active member of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation and is cooperating with countries around the world developing global...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Policy (12 Dec 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: A key part of the Land Use Review is consideration of how land users and other relevant stakeholders should be engaged in the on-going production of the land use knowledge base; the co-creation of a shared vision on the transition in land use; the formulation of priorities that will inform a National Land Use Strategy; and the design of evidence-based and collaborative plans and actions. At...