Results 3,441-3,460 of 23,950 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: If the Deputy looks at what we have done here, there has been a massive step change in terms of the supports available. The key objective here is to support family farms. We want to support the farmers in this country who have the land to adopt some forestry as part of their farming enterprise. The premiums are very attractive and are up by almost two thirds on an annual basis, as well as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: There are restrictions in certain areas. We can only provide licences where it is appropriate to do so and where it stacks up to do so and that does present challenges for people in those areas. However, from the Government's point of view, we have put really strong premiums in place. We are trying to make sure people can get their licences in a timely fashion, which was not the case for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I want to add to that. When both the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I came into office in early 2020, there was a growing crisis at that stage. Up to then, licences were issuing in a relatively timely manner. The result of that court case, however, meant that the time and resources going into processing each application in hand radically increased. This led to the build-up of a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I will briefly add to that. It is important to acknowledge what the team has done over the past couple of years in getting to this situation in the context where, as a result of a court case, things were changed radically, which led to a massive backlog. That obviously put massive pressure on the industry and all involved in it. It also posed a massive challenge to the team. We have gone...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Just in terms of the figures, if Deputy Healy-Rae looks at private felling licences, this year we received 696 but we issued 1,176. We are issuing a lot more than we have received. We received applications for 750 Coillte felling licences and we issued 1,132. We are more on top of felling licences now. When they come in they are dealt with very promptly and issued. That is coming from a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: In response to Deputy Healy-Rae, the point is that we are putting massive amounts of taxpayers' money into the premiums for forestry and, therefore, we must make sure trees are being planted in areas that serve the public interest well in terms of where the money is being paid to put in forestry. We are paying for the planting of it and we are paying 20 years of premiums to farmers. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: We would be doing more harm than good if we were planting trees in heavy peat soils.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is correct, but were spruce to be planted, the soil must have less than 30 cm of peat.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: There is a big step change in the current forestry strategy by comparison with the previous one in that farmers now have a premium one third greater than that of non-farmers. Farmers have the premium for five years more than the 15 years for which investors or non-farmers will have it. It is at the back end but it is loaded in favour of farmers, which is what we were seeking to do in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: In terms of premiums?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Coillte could not but private investors could. They were certainly in the market last time around. Farmers now have the added advantage of the additional five years of premium in deciding and competing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Cathaoirleach and the committee members for giving their time today. I accept it has been a challenging two or three years. However, we are now on a much more positive footing and we have a lot to be positive about with the forestry strategy in place and how we go forward. We have a new strategy with the funding in place to back it. The licensing system is also coming into...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Harbours and Piers (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: In January I announced the allocation of €37.3m for capital projects in Ireland’s six state-owned Fishery Harbour Centres at Killybegs, Ros an Mhíl, An Daingean, Castletownbere, Dunmore East and Howth through the 2023 Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme.  The deep water quay project at Ros an Mhíl is one of the flagship projects...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Data (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Controls undertaken by Department staff at our ports and airports are an important element of our national biosecurity measures.   Officials from my Department’s Imports Control Division have seized a total of 4680 food consignments in Dublin Airport in 2022 and 2023 to-date, please details below. Year Number of Seized Consignments 2022 ...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Harbours and Piers (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I announced the allocation of €37.3m for capital projects in 2023 in Ireland’s six state-owned Fishery Harbour Centres at Killybegs, Ros an Mhíl, An Daingean, Castletownbere, Dunmore East and Howth through the Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme.  The Smooth Point pier extension at Killybegs is one of the flagship projects...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Proposed Legislation (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: My Department has referred five general schemes of Bills to an Oireachtas Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny (PLS) from 1 January 2016 to date. Some of the dates are approximate as documents may have been sent to IT service on a particular day, but uploaded and published on the Department’s website on a subsequent day. The information requested on these enactments are as...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Hen Harriers (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Hen Harrier Project, which ended in December 2022, was operationally independent of my Department and run by the Hen Harrier Project Team. The Project team was responsible for the administration of the project and associated payments. Any queries relating to payments should be addressed directly to the Project team.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing Industry (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I propose to take Questions Nos. 176 and 177 together. I understand that the Board of Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) is currently reviewing its Constitution.  In this regard, Clause 39 of the Constitution outlines how the Board is composed.  Specifically, in relation to the representative of the horse sport industry in Northern Ireland, it states: “One person...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing Industry (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I am not currently engaged with the Northern Ireland Horse Board regarding the provision of funding to them as this organisation is outside my jurisdiction.  As you may be aware Horse Sport Ireland are contracted to my Department to deliver National Breeding Services for the Sport Horse Sector and breeders based in NI are entitled to benefit from some of these initiatives.

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing Industry (4 Oct 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) is the regulatory body for all horseracing in Ireland. The IHRB is a company limited by guarantee. The Turf Club and the Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee (INHSC) transferred the regulatory functions together with related assets and liabilities to the company under a business transfer agreement on 1 January 2018. The role of the...