Results 2,901-2,920 of 7,788 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for joining us. Mr. Breen spoke about the stock of 2,000 tonnes of peat. With the best will in the world, 45,000 to 50,000 tonnes are used in Ireland per year. Even if 50% is added to that 2,000 tonnes in some way, would it be fair to say we will have just 8% to 9% of what is required in Ireland for the year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What does Mr. Breen see filling the vacuum for the other 85%? I am going by the figures he has mentioned. I am talking about what happens when someone is not dealing with somebody. Peat is different. For example, smaller peat producers have different markets. Does it look like it will be imported? If you have someone else buying something from you, you will not head down the road and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Bord na Móna have enough peat in store for briquettes up to 2024, which is the date mentioned by Mr. Breen? What is the total peat Bord na Móna has around the country, bad, good or indifferent, in cubes or in tonnage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Breen spoke earlier about employees. How much of a drop has there been in direct employees working on a full-time basis, say from 2015 to 2022?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Many people are contacting us. Some of us went to a meeting yesterday. I refer to people who are renting turf. I know that one place has an agreement with Bord na Móna. My understanding is that Bord na Móna is willing to talk to communities. There were agreements to talk to communities in relation to turf cutting. Is that correct? If a proposal is put to Bord na Móna in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I did not ask the legal position. I know the legal position. I will repeat the question I asked. We were told previously that there were agreements going back. I have unearthed two such agreements, where affidavits are being done. Those communities are willing to get together to buy a small portion. These are small portions; they are not anything massive. Is Bord na Móna willing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I understand that fully. To be clear, I am not questioning the legal position. I am talking about cases in which there are agreements and in which the community is willing to buy out a small section in order that it will not belong to Bord na Móna from then on. Is the company willing to sit down with communities, where there are agreements, to resolve the issues? It is a minimal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am asking a question that arises from a meeting I attended yesterday evening. I am repeating myself over and over again. If there is a request from a local community, is Bord na Móna willing to sit down with that community?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Okay. In the line of----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I understand all that. What I am saying is if I buy the field, the field is my baby after that. It is not Bord na Móna's or anyone else's. That is all I am saying. I welcome what has been said. I understand the legal side of it. I am not questioning that whatsoever. I am talking about - it was stated to me previously - where there were cases where there were agreements made or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: To inform Dr. MacNamara, I can send him a video of a field. In fairness the contractor - I am a contractor though I do not have the gear for that - I would not go into the field if I got €1,000 an acre because all he was doing was getting stuck and towing a valuable machine around the place. They have given a letter to that farmer that they are never coming back to do that again...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Dr. MacNamara might forward the committee his contact details because I want to engage with him on this one to try and bring a solution to it. On the recycling side of Bord na Móna, the company won a large contract lately for recycling plastic. Was that plastic recycled since Bord na Móna got it or was it just brought to another place in the south-west of the county?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It was a large contract that Bord na Móna won. I thought Mr. Breen might be aware of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: On the power plant, is Bord na Móna going for planning permission to keep the power plant going? Am I right that it is up in 2024?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will let someone else in. I will come back after a while once they are finished.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I believe I know where Deputy Carthy is coming from. I know the piles around Castlepollard. A problem arose last year for private individuals who had piles of peat that was to be hauled away on the moving-floor trailer to the place of processing. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in its great judgment, decided to start following people around roads. It does not do what it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Hold on now. I will name those concerned if Mr. Breen wants me to. Some of them have connections with fairly big outfits here in Ireland. Why is the director, who is from Northern Ireland, from the ESB? Why did two Northern companies come to the South to price the job? I will bring proof if I need to. Let us deal with facts and not what is or is not appropriate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horticultural Peat Supply and Willow Scheme: Bord na Móna (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Okay. Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Fuel Prices: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. I have several questions. I do not know which of the witnesses deals with the hackers hauling oil from the port in Dublin. Is it Mr. McPartlan who deals with oil tankers or is it the filling stations?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Fuel Prices: Discussion (23 Mar 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will ask the question. One morning a large operator quoted a price of €1.40 a litre for green diesel and €1.35 for kerosene. When I spoke on Leaders' Questions at 12.55 p.m. that day these were the prices. That evening, the prices increased to €1.50 and €1.45. The following morning, the prices were increased to €1.60 and €1.55.