Results 3,081-3,100 of 4,350 for speaker:Bobby Aylward

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: I note that €0.95 million was recouped from farmers. Is Mr. O'Driscoll satisfied with that? In my case, an area was overgrown with bushes and I incurred a cut. I did not incur a penalty but I did have to accept a cut from then on. Is it right that the taxpayer should pay the fines incurred by the Department? Should there have been greater pursuance of individual farmers for money owed?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Can I ask, just because we will have to move on to other matters, how in the negotiations did the Department get the EU to come down on the figures? They were looking for a lot more and the Department got it reduced. I just want to know on what grounds did it yield on that. That is the last question I will ask on this.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: I must compliment the Department on getting it down. I want to move on to milk quotas indemnity. I welcome the three-year-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Is my time up already?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: God bless us. I am only starting. I have a whole lot of questions to ask.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: I will get another chance. On the milk quota, I welcome the three-year chance for farmers to pay it back. The price of milk had dropped, the market fell away, the quotas had been disbanded, the farmers were prompted by everyone, including the Department and politicians, to get into more milk and then the bottom fell out of it. Can the Secretary General outline the Department's rationale...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: It is almost clear then.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Can I come back in?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: I have a complaint about the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS. As a politician and farmer, many people have made representations to me about trying to build for dairying, trying to get dairies right and milk machines etc. in starting up in the business. I spent three or four frustrating months getting on to the Department to get the all-clear for the farmers to go and build...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: I was told that the Department's IT was not up and running. The Department's computer system last year was the cause of a lot of delays, that it did not have the proper IT system in place and that it has this rectified now. Is that true?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Okay, I will come back to the witnesses later.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Did the board require permission to sell Harold's Cross?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Does the Department have any concerns about it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: What about Mr. Gleeson? Did he get a reply about Bord na gCon?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: A means test applies.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: Deputy Cullinane did not go first time.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: I have a few quick questions. I want to ask about the young farmers and the national reserve. There was provision of €24 million in 2015 for young farmers from the national reserve. There was no funding in 2016. Can the witness explain why that happened? What is the Department thinking about in the future?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: There was €24 million in it in 2015.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: So all farmers would see it reduced a bit.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector (16 Feb 2017)

Bobby Aylward: What is the policy going forward to 2017 and 2018?