Results 31,941-31,960 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Payments (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy is aware, we are faced with unprecedented financial constraints and difficult decisions have had to be taken in recent years regarding funding of schemes operated by my Department, principally the disadvantaged areas scheme. Rather than simply take an across the board approach to cutting rates, I am determined to use this opportunity to make the scheme more focused. I am...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Fishing Industry Development (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: The grant aid is given out on the basis of two criteria. We are trying to modernise processing in Ireland to make it more efficient and competitive in order that we can process more fish here and land more fish caught by Irish trawlers and foreign trawlers. These changes are taking place and are evidenced by the increasing export figures. We are also looking to invest in facilitating the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sugar Industry (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: This issue is one of many that are being debated as we draw to a conclusion in the Council of Ministers on a negotiating position on CAP reform. Then we can go into a trialogue process to agree in co-decision with the European Parliament what the CAP will look like for the next seven years. Hopefully, the Irish Presidency will be able to conclude all of that before the end of June. Sugar...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Fishing Industry Development (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: Our food industry is a high-growth area of our economy and the seafood processing sector is no exception. The sector has significant potential to increase revenues and employment in the coming years. I have on previous occasions referred to my commitment to ensure the maximum number of jobs are created and maintained in the seafood industry. Both Food Harvest 2020 and the action plan for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sugar Industry (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: They are all valid questions, but I have made the case to the Commission, formally and informally. I have speaking notes to show that I have raised this issue at Council meetings. There are one or two other countries in a similar position, Slovenia probably being the best example. Countries that continue to have large sugar quotas and industries are anxious to protect the status quo...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Horse Slaughter Standards (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: It is important to separate the issues of the horsemeat scandal we are currently investigating and the question of whether we have appropriate checks in place to ensure that any horse slaughtered for human consumption has a valid passport and microchip. There is no evidence at the moment to suggest that there is any connection between horses that have been slaughtered in Ireland and the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sugar Industry (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: As Deputy Martin Ferris will know, there are a number of interest groups in the State which would like to see the return of a sugar refining industry, not least farmers who want to grow sugar beet both as a valuable cash crop and as a valuable break crop in arable farming. That is even more important, given the potential for new greening measures in the Common Agricultural Policy reform...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Horse Slaughter Standards (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: They are fair questions. First, with regard to the removal of the issuing agency, there are about seven bodies that can issue equine passports in Ireland. They are in different areas, such as sports horses and warmbloods. Horse Sport Ireland is the main one along with Weatherbys, but there are others in specialist areas. We removed the Irish Cob Society from that approved list because the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Horse Slaughter Standards (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: Under EU law, responsibility for compliance with food safety and traceability requirements rests, in the first instance, with food business operators. This is augmented by official controls, applied at different stages in the food supply chain. My Department implements official controls in regard to horse identification at marts and other sales venues, abattoirs and points of entry to the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Payments (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: It will be recalled that, arising from the 2012 budgetary process, savings needed to be found in my Department’s expenditure for 2012 to keep it in line with government targets. Accordingly, it was necessary to adjust the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme. However, rather than simply apply an across the board cut to the rates payable or reduce the maximum payable area, I decided that real...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Slaughter Standards (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: All slaughter plants which are approved under the relevant EU food safety regulations, known collectively as the ‘Hygiene Package’, are entitled to export the meat they produce. EU law provides for the free movement of goods between Member States. On that basis, meat and meat products, such as horsemeat, produced in an approved establishment, can be moved freely within the EU....

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Suckler Welfare Scheme Expenditure (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: The Suckler Welfare Scheme was a five-year Scheme for beef breed animals born during the period 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2012 in herds owned by eligible participants. This Scheme was fully funded by the Exchequer. In the context of Budget 2013, I announced that, given the existing Scheme had reached the end of its projected life and achieved its aim, I had secured funding for a new...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare Issues (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: The most recent estimate of the number of Sport Horses in Ireland is provided by a report commissioned by Horse Sport Ireland and conducted by UCD on the Economic contribution of the Sport Horse industry to the Irish economy. The report was published last autumn and estimated the total sport horse population in Ireland at 124,368. Of these, the Breeding sector comprised 73,349, the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Rural Development Programme (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: Under the Rural Development Programme 2007 - 2013 [RDP] a total of €2,494,540,590 EAFRD funding was allocated at programme level. This was subsequently allocated at axis level under the programme financial plan. Since the launch of the RDP expenditure under the programme up to the end 2012 amounted to €3.74bn. This represents close on 77.6% of the total value of the Programme...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: We have a long way to go before final decisions can be taken on the content of the next rural development programme, including whether to include an element for forestry development. Although we now know, since Friday last, the amount of EU funding that will be available to Ireland for rural development, the proposed EU framework of rules for rural development in the next programming period...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Schemes (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: I am, of course, conscious of the financial pressures on many farm families and of the importance of grant and scheme payments to their incomes and cash-flow. Since my appointment I have given the highest priority to the processing and payment of all scheme payments and to the elimination of all unnecessary delays. In a ten week period from late September to early December 2012, the amount...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Common Agricultural Policy Reform (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: The proposal tabled by the EU Commission provides for progressive reductions on payments in excess of €150,000 to any one farmer and sets a mandatory cap on individual payments of €300,000 or more. These reductions and caps are net of the greening payment and salary costs and would not have any practical implications for Ireland. The Commission proposal does not provide...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Aquaculture Development (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: The European Court of Justice declared in case C418/04 that, by failing to take all the measures necessary to comply with Article 6(3) of Directive 92/43 (Habitats Directive) in respect of authorisation of aquaculture programmes, Ireland had failed to fulfil its obligations under that Directive. In the negotiations to address the judgment a process was agreed with the European Commission...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Funding (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: The financial implications for farmers arising from the MFF, in terms of the latter’s effect on farmers’ direct payments, derive primarily from the overall allocations made to individual Member States. Under the terms of the MFF agreement reached last Friday by Heads of State and Government, the distribution of direct payments between Member States indeed included a provision...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Properties (12 Feb 2013)

Simon Coveney: My Department owns and operates, under Statute, six Fishery Harbour Centres at Killybegs, Ros an Mhíl, Dingle, Castletownbere, Dunmore East and Howth. Properties located in the Fishery Harbour Centres are, when appropriate, offered for tenancy under lease or licence agreements. An individual agreement, which is a formal legally binding document on both parties, is voluntarily signed at...