Results 3,081-3,100 of 7,788 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the Minister for coming in. Similar to the Chair, I welcome the common sense being brought to bear on this issue and the Minister's intervention. I note the allocation for administration has increased by between 25% and 30%. Will the Minister explain that?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Administration non-pay costs increased by 43%. That is the figure I am trying to fathom. It is in table 4 of programme B.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am looking at the overall budgets and farmer participation numbers. Is it not regrettable that there were nearly 49,000 farmers in GLAS in 2020 but that we will now see about 41,650, which will be, to put it simply, 8,000 fewer farmers in an environmental scheme?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Where is the opportunity to avail of the scheme, though? How would someone who came out of GLAS last year get into a new scheme for 2022?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is the reason we have 7,000 fewer farmers participating?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is 17% or 18% not a huge drop-off?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is it not that GLAS is very restrictive in that if you were out of land you had leased, it was a problem, and that the opportunity was not there to get the land to re-lease or whatever and it-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am looking at the number of hectares in forestry. I cannot believe my eyes. I see 2,434 ha for 2020. I see 8,000 ha for 2021 and 8,000 ha for 2022. We did not reach 8,000 ha in 2021. We keep persisting with these figures year in, year out. Is it not a false figure for 2021 and an aspirational figure for 2022?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Afforestation licences. No.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We are at 4,000 ha, or we said we would reach-----

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Yes, but about 4,000 ha worth was given out in licences. I am worried. I have looked at the figures for this year to date. While I acknowledge that the number of licences for felling has improved, on the planting side of it I have looked up the figures for January and February so far and it is backwards we are certain to go again. That is what I worry about.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The Minister talked about the sheep welfare scheme. The Department has made changes to it, and I welcome the new dates. What was the outlay for the sheep welfare scheme? In my understanding, in 2016 or 2017 either €20 million or €25 million was laid out for it. Is that correct?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What is it now?

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It has gone down in total since that time.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Bringing the debate back to the issue of forestry, unless the dashboard I am reading is wrong, 4,255 ha worth of licences was given out in 2019. In 2020 the figure was 4,342 ha, in 2021 it was 4,255 ha and it is 505 ha so far this year. The Minister said the figure was 8,000 ha.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: So far this year, 505 have been given out but last year the Minister said the number of hectares was 8,000.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Unless we are getting a wrong dashboard, 4,255 ha was the total for the year and the year before that the figure was 4,342 ha. That is what the dashboard tells us on hectares, and then it shows figures for kilometres and licences issued. What I am reading is that afforested hectares for 2021 come to 4,225, rather than the 8,000 ha the Minister is saying.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is about half what the Department has down for 2021.

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The money is the money that is laid out. We will not change it here. No matter what we do, it will be the same. There is no point in holding the Minister all night. We got a few phone calls in recent days from people about slurry. Next year, from what I can see, most farmers will need to be using the low emission slurry spreading system, LESS, going by the nitrate regulations and all...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Fitzmaurice: No, I am talking about different things. The last one was EU direct payments, which is also the final area covered in the Minister's presentation. There is €28 million of a deficit. Am I right in that? The other area I talked about was slurry. They are straightforward issues.