Results 3,721-3,740 of 23,948 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fishing Communities (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I accept this has taken time, but I assure the Deputy that if it were straightforward, it would have been dealt with long ago. I had legal advice on my table regarding the workability and legality of the Bill, and I then sought further legal advice in that regard because I wanted to explore it from every angle and fully examine what the proposal was and what the potential might be. That has...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fishing Communities (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I will update the committee shortly on it, but the Deputy can take it that it has been very challenging given it has taken so long to consider it, look at it and see what the options might be. Before the end of this month, I will revert to the committee with my update on the Bill. Like the Deputy, I want to do everything we can to support the islanders. From a Government point of view,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Agriculture Schemes (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The Deputy is on the button with this question, which is being asked throughout the country, regarding the new suckler carbon efficiency programme, which replaces the suckler welfare scheme. This decision was made in the strategic interest of improving our suckler and beef herd and especially the value of the animals we sell and market abroad. Origin Green, the Bord Bia quality assurance...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: To give absolute reassurance to Deputy Berry, everything will be voluntary. It is about providing options to farmers, voluntary options, and ones that will pay farmers. That will help us collectively to meet the challenge of reducing emissions over the coming decade. That is something I am confident we will do, and that is the approach we have taken so far and will continue to take. ...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Nitrates Usage (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank Deputy Nolan for the question. Last year Ireland secured renewal of our nitrates derogation covering the period 2022 to 2025. As part of that approval, the European Commission attached increased conditionality to the derogation in the granting of it, including a requirement that we would conduct a two-year water quality review. Its implementing decision states that where water...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Nitrates Usage (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: We are working together to try to seek extra time. I have brought everyone in the sector into that working group. It is the first time there has ever been a working group on this issue, so we can pool ideas and pool resources for what is a real challenge on maintaining our derogation. My team has already engaged with the Commission with regard to flexibilities. We will engage further over...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Nitrates Usage (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Yes, multiple issues impact water quality, and certainly wastewater from towns, villages and sewage are a key part of that, mainly contributing to the phosphorus side. The biggest challenge from the nitrates side comes from agriculture. That will be recognised by all. While we have to address the phosphorus side and the sewage side, which is a real problem, we also have to address the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The mid-term review is not a capital review; it is a review across the EU budget and it is quite narrow in relation to the items it identifies. We fought hard at the start, when the multi-annual financial framework was negotiated and published, to make sure we could push it to be as high as it could possibly be. We were one of the countries pushing for a higher CAP budget. There was lots...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: -----which is the highest it has ever been between CAP programmes.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The original proposal, when the multi-annual financial framework was being negotiated at European level a couple of years ago, was for a cut in CAP. As Taoiseach at the time, Deputy Micheál Martin, pushed back massively, because of the importance of agriculture in our country. It is not the same in other countries in Europe, but it is for us. We were one of the countries to the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: That is what this Government's commitment is.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Deputy Berry's question is quite a topical one. It is one that is coming up quite a bit at the moment and getting a lot of discussion as well. He is right that it was covered in the Irish Farmers' Journallast week and it has been raised at many of the meetings I have been having with farm organisations in recent weeks too. I want to be clear that no decision has been taken by the Government...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Agriculture Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I think Deputy Berry explains it very well. As Minister, it has been my approach, and it will continue to be my approach, to work with farmers with whom we share this challenge. We all have to work together to meet the challenge. We are doing that and that will continue. On the suckler and the beef sectors, farm organisations were adamant that there should be no scheme for them, so I...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Milk Supply (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I agree with the Deputy about the scenes we saw on "RTÉ Investigates" on Monday night. They were absolutely unacceptable and totally intolerable. I have launched an investigation and it will be robustly followed up. We cannot have any corner of our agrifood sector in which those types of practices happen. They are certainly not representative of what happens on farms across the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Milk Supply (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I dispute the Deputy's last point entirely. There can be no place for the type of behaviour we saw on "RTÉ Investigates". I will not tolerate that as the Minister responsible for agriculture, nor indeed will anyone in the sector with responsibility. We will clamp down on it in every way we possibly can. The Deputy made a point about emissions. There is no doubt we saw an increase...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Agricultural Policy (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy. I take it he is referring to the mid-term review of the European Union's 2021-2027 MFF, as it is the financial framework that sets the funding allocations across the various headings of the EU budget, including the Common Agricultural Policy. Last month the Commission published its proposals for a limited and targeted revision of the 2021-2027 MFF, which is the overall...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fishing Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy for his question. This is an important issue, so we must ensure that everyone works together in progressing future offshore opportunities and that all considerations are taken into account. Commercial sea fishing and aquaculture activities are long-standing, pre-existing and traditional activities in the marine environment. The Deputy will agree that our seafood...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fishing Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I am happy to meet them further. I regularly meet the inshore fisheries forum. I would encourage our inshore fishers to become organised through the regional and national forums. Their voice has not been represented properly in our fisheries’ representative infrastructure. This has been a major weakness and has meant that, in many cases, they have not had fair representation or a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fishing Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: To be clear, officials in my Department have worked consistently to ensure the voice of fishers is heard across the Government, which is where the challenge lies. It is always heard within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, but some of these issues are led by other Departments. Like fishers, my Department’s officials have always sought to ensure that engagement...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Milk Supply (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy for her question. Milk is a sustainable, safe and very nutritious food product and we are among the best in the world in how we produce and deliver it. Whenever I listen to nutritionists on television or radio, they advocate for the nutritional benefits of milk as a food. As such, it is important that milk and all the dairy products that come from it are produced....