Results 3,801-3,820 of 24,047 for speaker:Charlie McConalogue

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Food Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: We need to ensure that is the case. It has not always been the case in the past that the same attention has been paid to the requirements and the oversight of what is coming in compared to what we do within our own borders. With regard to trade deals, which are being renewed or are being initiated for the first time, that question has to be to the forefront. The standards have to be the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Welfare (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy. In December last year, I announced a record allocation of over €5.8 million in funding for 99 animal welfare charities throughout the country, under the animal welfare grants programme. That figure exceeded the commitment in the programme for Government, which was to double the funding allocated within two years. It marks the largest award of grant funding ever...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Welfare (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I thank the Deputy. It is important the matter is raised here in the Dáil and highlighted, particularly in advance of the budget. Since we came into office, the Government has doubled the funding. We are very much aware of the challenges many are facing, the important work they are doing and the need for us to support those charities at Government level as well as supporting public...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Welfare (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: I am happy to meet the Deputy further on this. I know he has been a strong advocate for this matter and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has given its attention to it. I am certainly happy to continue to work with him to make progress on it. We have work to do; there are real challenges in some parts of the country. The welfare of all horses is not where...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Food Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: As a small open economy, international trade and the global rules-based system which supports that trade are critical for the continued development of the Irish economy. In the case of the Irish agri-food sector, our exports are very high quality. They are sustainably produced goods and we export them to some 180 countries around the world. This highlights the importance of the rules-based...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Food Industry (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: It is a really important principle. In order to be fair to our food producers domestically and across the EU, where high standards are set in food safety and sustainability, those same standards should be required of countries we would trade with. Ultimately that food is coming into the same market and competing with the food we produce. It should be meeting the same standard of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Welfare (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: Rásaíocht Con Éireann is a commercial State body. Its role is chiefly to control greyhound racing and to improve and develop the greyhound industry. The allocation from the horse and greyhound fund for Rásaíocht Con Éireann is €18.2 million this year. Since 2020, my Department has ring-fenced 10% of the fund allocation to Rásaíocht Con...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Welfare (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: The programme for Government commitment is being significantly advanced through the various initiatives and the funding that Rásaíocht Con Eireann is spending and how it is being allocated. I outlined some of the steps taken in the past two to three years. These are significant steps forward for safeguards around welfare and the supports for greyhounds. For example, 50% of all...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Animal Welfare (13 Jul 2023)

Charlie McConalogue: It is a key priority of the Government. It is also a key priority for Rásaíocht Con Éireann, and the management and board. The long-term viability and future for the industry has to be built on good welfare. It is what the public and dog owners expect. It is what all dogs deserve. It is also what Government funding is contingent on. We continue to work closely together....

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

Charlie McConalogue: I take Deputy Ó Cuív's point. It has always been a challenge to get smaller herds into the suckler schemes. That was the experience with the previous scheme as well. This scheme is much more attractive in terms of pay rates. Last time around, somebody with fewer than nine or ten cows would have received €90 per cow. The payment this time around is €150. That is a...

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

Charlie McConalogue: It is not that we are leaving anybody out. It is open to everyone. Anyone can apply. I accept what Deputy Ó Cuív is stated to the effect that those who have smaller numbers of animals are not applying in the same percentages as those who have more, but it is open to everyone. In addition, we have increased the payments significantly, from €90 to €150. The...

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

Charlie McConalogue: -----its journey is quality assured. As we go forward and as the sustainability ask of consumers across the world and in supermarkets that we are selling to becomes stronger, to be able to say that it is only the last 90 that are quality assured as opposed to the animal's journey that is quality assured becomes something we have to look at in terms of making sure we have a strong scheme and...

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

Charlie McConalogue: It has been a challenge to get more participation in quality assurance. It has come a long way but we need to try to have more farmers in it. That is difficult to achieve. It enhances our overall product. The Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, and I are doing trade missions abroad all the time, and the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is also looking at it from an organic point of view....

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

Charlie McConalogue: There is no doubt that a move like this will strengthen the sector-----

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

Charlie McConalogue: -----but I accept it is a rationale that at times is challenging to communicate.

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

Charlie McConalogue: I do not believe it is possible to have a halfway house for quality assurance. We have one national quality assurance scheme and one national brand. It is important this is as strong as possible. Lots of farmers are concerned about taking on the additional administration involved in quality assurance. The experience has been, from those who have made that move and made that jump, that it...

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

Charlie McConalogue: The objective of the suckler carbon efficiency programme, SCEP, is to provide support to suckler and beef farmers to improve the environmental sustainability of the national beef herd. The programme aims to build on the gains already delivered through the beef data and genomics programme, which finished in December, and the beef environmental efficiency programme by improving the genetic...

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

Charlie McConalogue: I hope to engage with the committee shortly to provide an update on the Bill. The Island Fisheries (Heritage Licence) Bill 2017, to which the Deputy referred, seeks to create a specific system for licensing island fishers to conduct small-scale coastal fishing activities and would provide regulatory powers for this purpose. There have been a number of significant developments since 2017....

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

Charlie McConalogue: Like the Deputy, I very much value our islands and wish to make sure there are sustainable, economic livelihoods on them. Traditionally, fishing was the biggest part of that and really drove the economies of the islands, although that has become less so as the years have passed. I want to work in any way we can to support the inshore fishing sector both around our coast and, in particular,...

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...