Results 30,501-30,520 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Amendments Nos. 69 and 70 amend Schedule 2. They are drafting amendments to correct the spellings of certain diseases. I assume nobody has any objections to that.

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Again, these are technical amendments to update the list of legislation.

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: I thank this House, in particular, for its contribution to this Bill. I hope I have taken on board most of the concerns expressed by Senators. I certainly tried to do that, both here and in the Dáil, and I believe the Bill is better for it. The original draft of this legislation was put in place by the previous Government. It has been amended, changed and modernised, as appropriate,...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Amendment No. 44 clarifies that the Minister need not personally authorise every officer and may delegate this power. This is a practical change which has been made at the suggestion of Deputy Ó Cuív in recalling his experience as a Minister, of which I am sure he has fond recollections. It is sensible to provide that Ministers should not be required to sign off on all such...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Amendments Nos. 45 and 46 deal with local authority officers. Amendment No. 45 is intended to clarify the language around the appointment of an authorised officer to make clear that officers appointed by a local authority may only act within the jurisdiction of their local authority or that of another local authority where arrangements to do so have been made. These are uncontroversial...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Amendment No. 47 makes clear that an authorised officer appointed by a body with which the Minister has a service agreement may not act in relation to farm animals on a farm. Senators may recall our previous discussion of the legislation when concerns were expressed that I would delegate officers from animal welfare organisations who may not have an understanding of farming to audit farmers....

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: These amendments address a technical issue. Amendment No. 49 to section 39 clarifies the powers of a garda to arrest a person. It is based on legal advice received from the Department of Justice and Equality and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and ensures the section is in line with the Criminal Justice Act 2006. Amendments Nos. 52 and 57 provide for minor drafting changes to...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Amendments Nos. 50 and 72 are technical in nature and relate to section 42, which deals with the animal health and welfare notice. Amendment No. 50 corrects a typographical error by replacing the word "as" with the word "or", while amendment No. 72 corrects a cross-reference arising from an earlier amendment.

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Amendment No. 53 has been introduced to address the issue of fixed penalty notices or on-the-spot fines, as they have been described by some. The amendment is intended to make clear that the authorisation to issue the fixed penalty notice is separate from the general authorised officer provisions of the legislation. The Bill provides adequate checks and balances and I am satisfied it will...

Topical Issue Debate: Fodder Crisis (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: DAS is never paid before the end of September. There is a reason for that. Legally, one cannot make a payment until one can prove that a farmer qualifies for it. One of the qualification criteria is that the farmer has to have had his animals for seven months. We are not even seven months into the year. I am being asked to give out payments to farmers before they even qualify. If I did...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: This relates to arrangements for consideration of representations. This series of identical amendments is intended to address concerns raised by limiting the power of the Minister to withhold moneys that are currently due to the Minister from an individual. There are three sections with similar powers so the amendment appears three times. The amendments introduce an additional safeguard by...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: These relate to codes of practice. These are a group of small drafting changes to the section which provides for codes of practice. These will be a central feature of this Bill in a series of different areas. While there has been some disquiet about codes, it is difficult for me to understand it. It is clear that a code cannot create a new offence, it can only illustrate an existing...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: This group relates to animal health levies and affects sections 26 to 29, inclusive. The amendments are designed to provide for maximum flexibility in order that the arrangements for the collection of animal levies can be amended in the future via regulations to reflect best practice in terms of efficiency and public accounting requirements. Accordingly, the requirement for advance payment,...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: This is a particularly sensitive area for farmers and farming organisations related to valuation and compensation. There were concerns about compensation where animals are destroyed for disease purposes. These were based on a misreading of the current legal situation. The provisions in the Animal Health and Welfare Bill do not make any change to the meaning of the 1966 Act but make the...

Topical Issue Debate: Fodder Crisis (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. That they come from different parties and none reflects the fact that this problem has nothing to do with party politics. This is a genuine crisis that has hit many farms, depending on the part of the country affected, the soil depth and weather, particularly in the past two weeks. This is a problem that we need to solve collectively. My...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: Group 10 relates to operations and procedures. If Members are not happy with the provision of this level of detail I can shorten my contribution. My concern is to ensure that I do not skim over anything. Amendments Nos. 21 and 55 relate to sections 16 and 52. There was much discussion about section 16, mainly concerning tail docking and exceptions for so-called working dogs. I have opted...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: This is about the protection of animals from poison. Amendment No. 22 replaces the section as was presented in this House. That followed difficulty in overlap between the legislative area of my Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Therefore, the specific issues we discussed concerning wildlife remain within the remit of the wildlife Acts. While a one-stop-shop might...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: We had a long discussion about feral cats in the Dáil because they are an issue. Cats are an unusual animal in that they are semi-domesticated in many ways. They become a protected animal if they are owned by a person but, essentially, for the purposes of the Bill they are considered a wild animal if they are not owned. On many farmyards one has cats living in the yard who are...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: This was a particularly sensitive issue. It relates to the role of authorised officers in the humane destruction of an animal. Amendments Nos. 26, 27 and 56 are to sections 23 and 52. There was a lot of concern about ensuring a badly injured animal could be put down by a suitably qualified operative, and we now provide for this. We had said only a qualified vet could put an animal down...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (22 May 2013)

Simon Coveney: These amendments relate to measures to protect animal welfare and which prohibit straying. Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 to section 8 provide for a change in the term describing the actions that must be taken to stop an animal straying from "necessary" to "reasonable". This was an amendment tabled by Fianna Fáil on Committee Stage that I considered to be reasonable and for the addition of...