Results 28,641-28,660 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney
- Other Questions: Departmental Publications (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I am confident there are no issues here.
- Other Questions: Departmental Publications (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: If the Deputy wants to challenge that with SIPO, he is more than welcome to do so.
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I agree.
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I want cattle to be slaughtered and processed in Ireland. There are jobs in these value-adding activities. The same thing applies in the case of seafood. It is important for farmers who do not feel the factories are giving them value for money for their cattle to have an alternative outlet - to keep the factories honest, as many people describe it. That is why we welcomed the opening of...
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: The Department has not been asked by the receiver-----
- Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: One of the challenges faced by those involved with the mapping system is that they have to rely on an image from space. The move from getting images from high-flying aircraft to getting images from satellites has allowed us to be much more precise. The imagery now available to us allows us to see the animals in the fields. I understand some challenges are encountered when photographs are...
- Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: The measurement of land area within the land parcel identification system respects all national surveying conventions with regard to slopes or hill land. The area quoted on Ordnance Survey Ireland maps, on which much of the land parcel identification system database is built, is based on the principle of measuring the horizontal or two-dimensional area. In cases of sloped land, this is the...
- Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: We are changing our software systems all the time. We have practically designed a new system.
- Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: It is working, by the way.
- Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes Data (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: That may be so, but it is because we are in the middle of a correction period. Other countries in the EU that are far bigger than Ireland are unable to do what we are doing. Since the middle of the summer, we have reassessed practically every one of the hundreds of thousands of land parcels in this country. I regard the judgment that has been made of the amount of land that is potentially...
- Other Questions: Departmental Publications (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: While this is a valid question, I think it is a strange one. The Department issues newsletters on a reasonably regular basis to update farmers who want to get that information. They are sent out in as cost-effective a way as possible. This is essentially an online service. Nobody in my Department is being paid anything extra for this and we are not bringing in any extra staff for it....
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: That is a valid question and is an issue we are working on currently. I have spoken to my Northern Ireland counterpart, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle O'Neill, who is also anxious to progress this issue. A technical discussion has commenced at a very senior level in both Departments to determine how we can facilitate this. However, it is not as simple as one...
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: Having said that, I am supportive of-----
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I am supportive of trying to facilitate a situation whereby food producers in Northern Ireland, who are Irish people and are producing Irish produce, can label it as Irish. However, protocols must be in place to allow my Department and its inspection teams to be part of the rigours of the necessary inspection process in Northern Ireland, with all of the checks and balances that we insist...
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy makes a fair point but both pork and poultry products on sale in Ireland and across the EU will have a country of origin label requirement in future, in the same way as beef products do at the moment, which will be a very welcome development when it happens. The ground is moving on this issue. On the issue of Irish-grown, British-finished beef and the labelling system around...
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: This is about supplying what the market wants. It is not about what we want. We must provide product that the market will pay for. In Italy there has been a demand for a certain age and quality of animal because that is what Italians want. The beef industry in Italy had a shortage of such animals. In the United Kingdom, the market wants something different. Regardless of what we want or...
- Other Questions: Live Exports (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I do not understand what the Deputy means when he says my Department is washing its hands of it.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Aquaculture Licences Applications (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I do not think people should be criticised for ambition. If this project is doable, we have an obligation to consider it. If it does not make sense from an environmental or management perspective or because of sea lice or other technical issues, I will not allow it to proceed. A high bar must be crossed to get a licence for a project of this scale, or anything around salmon farming,...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Aquaculture Licences Applications (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: On the final point-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Aquaculture Licences Applications (12 Dec 2013)
Simon Coveney: I accept the Deputy has raised genuine concerns, which I share and which is why we must be rigorous in our assessment of proposals of this nature. It is important to put Scotland in context. Scotland may not have farms that produce more than 2,000 tonnes but it produces 140,000 tonnes of salmon per year. Ireland produces 12,000 tonnes. It may be in Scotland's commercial interest not to...