Results 301-320 of 4,255 for speaker:Martin Heydon

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: To be clear, I brought forward a five-point plan in my engagement with farm organisations and other key stakeholders. At our summit a few weeks ago, that plan had 30 actions that were all possible measures that could be brought in to address all three elements of the challenge. Since I was appointed at the end of January, I engaged with the TB forum in February, asked the farm organisations...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I wish the Senator well for the term ahead. It is great to have her as a member of this committee. Her questions demonstrate the very reason we put into the programme for Government a clear commitment to establishing a Cabinet committee on water quality. Chaired by the Taoiseach, it had its first meeting at the end of March. A second meeting is scheduled for the middle of June. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Senator. There was lots in her contribution. I answered up to the questions about CAP, did I not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: We are good on the TB point. On a broad point on TB, there is no final set of proposals. I have come to the table with 30 actions under a five-point plan. Not all of those must be implemented. As I explained, we must have a layering effect that makes the pieces of the jigsaw come together. I removed some of those measures as part of ongoing negotiations for the second day of talks, in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: -----of proposals I hope to get agreement on will give that cover and will not leave a hole in the fence for the infection to seep through.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I absolutely will.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am happy to keep going and finish the meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am happy to answer them. They are really detailed but it is very important. On the Senator's first point regarding water quality, I do not for a minute want it to sound like we are putting the blame on other people. Farmers have a role to play in terms of water quality. The point we are making is farmers are making great strides in that area and we need others to make the investment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I thank the Deputy very much and wish him well in his term. It is great to have him on the committee. To say it clearly yet again, the CAP has served us very well. I think it is understandable for eastern European countries to want to have a focus on defence. The Deputy spoke about rearming as a very negative thing. There is a war-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I can understand why people who have Vladimir Putin as their neighbour would be concerned about their safety. These are fellow European countries, so I understand their concern. I-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: No, there is not. I do not accept the Deputy's underlying premise. He threw in a comment around GAEC 2 there as well. I am just making the point that European - and I will answer the specific point made by the Deputy - food security is not about every individual country producing all the food themselves. That is not food security. We are the second-most food secure nation in the world....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: Regarding the point about contingency measures and the work we are doing in this regard, I am not giving up. There is an element of throwing in the towel in some of what the Deputy is saying.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I take great heart when I look at a country like Poland, which is on the flank of Russia and facing such major problems. That country's minister for agriculture is, like us, strongly advocating for the need for a fully-funded CAP with the old structure. I am not, therefore, giving up on that and I am continuing to fight very hard. I work with-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I am sorry, but I will not be able to come back. I was supposed to have been here until 6 p.m. I do not mind finishing, but I cannot come back I am afraid. I should have been gone 15 minutes ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: Let us just not miss the vote.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: Yes, I will provide a written response to that question. It is probably the best approach because we are out of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: I will ensure the Deputy gets detailed responses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The AGRIFISH Council meets once a month. It is probably the most intense Council meeting along with ECOFIN. There are few Irish Ministers who have to go out there every month. I do not miss an opportunity to engage and get to know the officials. There are people in the cabinet of Commissioner Hansen and others who I knew previously in different roles. You build those relationships and...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: International Protection (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: My Department launched a new €1.3bn Forestry Programme in 2023 with an annual budget that can facilitate the planting of up to 8,000ha of new forests annually. The Afforestation Scheme, within the new Forestry Programme, offers landowners a choice of 12 Forest Types, covering a broad range of planting options. These include, for example, Native Woodland, Continuous Cover Forestry and...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (28 May 2025)

Martin Heydon: The Burren Scheme, funded by my Department under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2022, with additional support from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, was an agri-environmental results-based scheme devised to improve the condition of the natural and cultural heritage of the Burren. Farmers received payments to undertake actions focussed on habitat management for biodiversity, as...