Results 3,241-3,260 of 3,998 for speaker:Martin Kenny

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Issues: Discussion (14 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: The reason agriculture has been singled out is that it represents such a large portion of the Irish economy, compared with the economies of other countries. That is the point I made at the very beginning. Across Europe or elsewhere, economies have big industrial sectors. When those countries look at what they are going to do to mitigate climate change, they look at the sector that has the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Issues: Discussion (14 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: Absolutely. I appreciate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Issues: Discussion (14 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: Some 112 people work at the plant.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Issues: Discussion (14 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: The example given the previous evening was that farming land was put up for sale by a person who was left the land, who inherited it. They do not live nearby. For the past number of years the land had been leased. A local man with suckling cows was farming the land. Now that the land is for sale, that man wants to buy it. The man went into the bank and the banks told him they would lend...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Issues: Discussion (14 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: Exactly. The problem is that the Government is putting money in so that the farmer will be left with little other option. If he or she wants to buy the land, he or she must plant it. That is the only thing he or she can do with it. We need to make other activities more viable. In addition, we have many people coming in who are buying land from other counties. These are farmers from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Climate Change Issues: Discussion (14 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: I am not blaming people for doing it but I am saying it is what is happening. I take Mr. Callanan's point that there is work, but if I go to my parish, quite a bit of which is planted, there is not one human being I know who works in forestry, unless there is someone driving a lorry around somewhere whom I do not know about. Generally, that is all we have: guys driving trucks, hauling the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: I welcome the opportunity to speak to amendment No. 66. As Deputy Burton has said, information is power, and in this case it would seem that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine did not have the information on the extension of stamp duty to farmers because he certainly came out the next day to say that this was not going to extend to them. We now find, of course, that it does...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: I was talking about amendment No. 66. The Minister said this amendment would result in a loss of €32 million to the Exchequer if the stamp duty was reduced from 6% to 2%, which the amendment requests. I am quite confused about that figure because if 4% represents €32 million, it would suggest that there is approximately €800 million in agricultural land sales in the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: I move amendment No. 66: In page 53, to delete line 10 and substitute the following: “(i) in paragraph (4), by substituting “6 per cent for non-residential sales and 2 per cent for agricultural land sales” for “2 per cent”, and”. We will press this amendment.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: Time is of the essence. The sooner this is sorted out and something is clearly put in place in which people can have confidence, the better, as it is really what is necessary. The impression we got from the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, was that he would come back with something sometime. It needs to be something very solid very fast. That is really the issue. I have another point...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: It was calculated into it.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: It was.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: There was a reduction made in respect of that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: It is being pressed.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: On the issues being discussed, during the downturn when everything was going pear-shaped, many solvent businesses that had been built up in communities over many years were conned into becoming involved in the property business. When that market went belly up, the banks seized many of these businesses, many of which were still operational and solvent. They became the fall-guy for what had...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: I move amendment No. 69: In page 55, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “57. The Minister shall within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report which would include a risk assessment of the sustainably of stamp duty receipts from commercial property.".

Priority Questions: Fodder Crisis (8 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: It is too expensive.

Priority Questions: Fodder Crisis (8 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: It always seems to be the case that the main point is missed out. We know it is being monitored by Teagasc people on the ground, and in fairness, they are advising farmers and working alongside them and doing their best. What is needed is an acknowledgement that something should be put in place to reassure farmers and inform them that they have an option for the future and that something...

Priority Questions: Fodder Crisis (8 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: 39. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans for a fodder aid package to farmers affected by extreme weather conditions over the past two months. [47189/17]

Priority Questions: Fodder Crisis (8 Nov 2017)

Martin Kenny: This is the same question I put to the Minister on the previous occasion we had questions in the House. A fodder crisis is developing and has already developed in the north west and along the western seaboard. Deputy Scanlon has tabled a similar question to mine on this. The one thing we would like to get from the Minister today is his agreement that there is a crisis and that something...